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Hero  tales  from  American  history 


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HERO   TALES 
FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 


GENERAL  GRANT    RECONNOI 


TERING   THE   CONFEDERATE   POSITION. 


FROM   A   SKETCH    MADE   AT   THE   TIME. 


19  of  p,io 

HERO   TALES 

FROM    AMERICAN     HISTORY 


BY 

HENRY   CABOT   LODGE 

AND 

THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 


— "And  high  deeds 
Haunt  not  the  fringy  edges  of  the  fight, 
But  the  pell-mell  of  men." 

CLOUGH 


NEW  YORK 

THE    CENTURY   CO. 

1895 


Copyright,  1895,  by 
The  Century  Co. 


THE  DEVlNNi:  PRESB. 


""Ofosv  7]  ev  Tzaa-g  eXsoGepia  xsfopoiu.u.e'voi  61  xd>v8s  xe  TtaxEpe?  y.ai 
4](xsT£poi  nai  aoxoi  60x01  xai  v.aXu>g  (povxsc  rcoXXa  oyj  xai  xaXa  epva 
&7i£cpT|aavTO  ei?  uavxac  avBpumooi;  y.ai  iota  v.al  OY];jioaia,  oiou.svoi  oeiv 
orcep  XYj?  eXsobspiai;  *ai  "EXXyjoiv  uitip  cEXX"fjvtov  p.a^eaf)ai  y.ai  Bapfia- 
poi?  urcsp  arcdvxwv  xuiv  'EXXfyouv." 


"Hence  it  is  that  the  fathers  of  these  men  and  ours  also,  and  they  them- 
selves likewise,  being  nurtured  in  all  freedom  and  well  born,  have  shown 
before  all  men  many  and  glorious  deeds  in  public  and  private,  deeming  it 
their  duty  to  fight  for  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the  Greeks,  even  against 
Greeks,  and  against  Barbarians  for  all  the  Greeks." 

— plato:   "MENEXENUS." 


(0 

o 

CO 

5- 


TO 

E.  K.  R. 


To  you  we  owe  the  suggestion  of  writing  this  book.  Its 
purpose,  as  you  know  better  than  any  one  else,  is  to  tell  in  sim- 
ple fashion  the  story  of  some  Americans  who  showed  that  they 
knew  how  to  live  and  how  to  die;  who  proved  their  truth  by 
their  endeavor;  and  who  joined  to  the  stern  and  manly  qual- 
ities which  are  essential  to  the  well-being  of  a  masterful  race 
the  virtues  of  gentleness,  of  patriotism,  and  of  lofty  adherence 
to  an  ideal. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  all  Americans,  and  it  is  an  espe- 
cially good  thing  for  young  Americans,  to  remember  the  men 
who  have  given  their  lives  in  war  and  peace  to  the  service  of 
their  fellow-countrymen,  and  to  keep  in  mind  the  feats  of  dar- 
ing and  personal  prowess  done  in  time  past  by  some  of  the 
many  champions  of  the  nation  in  the  various  crises  of  her  his- 
tory. Thrift,  industry,  obedience  to  law,  and  intellectual  cul- 
tivation are  essential  qualities  in  the  make-up  of  any  successful 
people;  but  no  people  can  be  really  great  unless  they  possess 
also  the  heroic  virtues  which  are  as  needful  in  time  of  peace  as 
in  time  of  war,  and  as  important  in  civil  as  in  military  life. 
As  a  civilized  people  we  desire  peace,  but  the  only  peace  worth 
having  is  obtained  by  instant  readiness  to  fight  when  wronged 
—  not  by  unwillingness  or  inability  to  fight  at  all.  Intelligent 
foresight  in  preparation  and  known  capacity  to  stand  well  in 
battle  are  the  surest  safeguards  against  war.      America  will 


cease  to  be  a  great  nation  whenever  her  young  men  cease  to 
possess  energy,  daring,  and  endurance,  as  well  as  the  wish 
and  the  power  to  fight  the  nation's  foes.  No  citizen  of  a  free 
state  should  wrong  any  man;  but  it  is  not  enough  merely  to 
refrain  from  infringing  on  the  rights  of  others ;  he  must  also  be 
able  and  willing  to  stand  up  for  his  own  rights  and  those  of  his 
country  against  all  comers,  and  he  must  be  ready  at  any  time 
to  do  his  full  share  in  resisting  either  malice  domestic  or  for- 
eign levy. 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE. 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 


Washington, 

April  19,  1895. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

George  Washington H.  C.  Lodge  ...       i 

Daniel  Boone  and  the   Found-  \  __ 

>  Theodore  Roosevelt.     17 
ing  of  Kentucky      ) 

George  Rogers  Clark  and  the  )   _, 

_  >  Theodore  Kooseveli.     29 

Conquest  of  the  Northwest.  ) 

The  Battle  of  Trenton    .    .    .    .  H.  C.Lodge   ...  43 

Bennington H.  C.  Lodge   ...  57 

King's  Mountain Theodore  Roosevelt.  69 

The  Storming  of  Stony  Point     .  Theodore  Roosevelt.  79 

Gouverneur  Morris H.  C.  Lodge   ...  91 

The    Burning    of   the    "  Phila-  ) 

>  H.  C.  Lodge    .    .    .    101 
delphia        ) 

The  Cruise  of  the  "Wasp"      .    .  Theodore  Roosevelt.   115 

The      "  General      Armstrong  "  )  _ 

_  >  Iheodore  Roosevelt.   127 

Privateer ) 

The  Battle  of  New  Orleans      .  Theodore  Roosevelt.   137 

John    Ouincy    Adams    and    the  )   __  „    ,    , 

_    ^      _  f  jy.  c.  z^^  ...  149 

Right  of  Petition )  * 

Francis  Parkman ZT.  C.  Lodge   .    .    .161 

"Remember  the  Alamo"   ....  Theodore  Roosevelt.   171 

Hampton  Roads Theodore  Roosevelt.  183 

The  Flag-Bearer      Theodore  Roosevelt.  197 


PAGE 


The  Death  of  Stonewall  Tack-  ,   .,.. 

1  Theodore  Roosevelt.  211 


>  H.  C.  Lodge    .    .    .  237 


SON 

The  Charge  at  Gettysburg     .    .  Theodore  Roosevelt.  225 

General  Grant  and  the  Vicks- 
burg    Campaign 

Robert  Gould  Shaw H.  C.  Lodge  .  .  .   249 

Charles  Russell  Lowell      .    .    .  H.  C.  Lodge  .  .  .261 

Sheridan  at  Cedar  Creek    .    .    .  H.  C.  Lodge  .  .  .279 

Lieutenant    Cushing    and    the 


,  Theodore  Roosevelt.  201 
Ram  "  Albemarle      )  y 

Farragut  at  Mobile  Bay      .    .    .  Theodore  Roosevelt.  301 

Abraham  Lincoln H.  C.  Lodge   .    .    .323 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

General  Grant  Reconnoitering  the  Confederate 

Position ,    .    .  Frontispiece 

George  Washington 9 

Daniel  Boone  in  the  Frontier  Woods.    At  Close 

Quarters 21 

"All  Day  Long  the  Troops  Waded  in  Icy  Water  "  35 

Washington  Directing  the  Artillery  at  Trenton  49 

The  March  to  Trenton 55 

At  the  Bayonet's  Point 63 

Charge  of  the  American  Frontiersmen 75 

The  Storming  of  Stony  Point 85 

The  Destruction  of  the  Frigate  "  Philadelphia" 

in  the  Harbor  of  Tripoli 107 

"The  Fighting  Sailor-men  Sprang  Forward"    .    .  123 

The  Privateer  and  her  Prizes 133 

Andrew  Jackson 143 

John  Quincy  Adams 155 

Francis  Parkman 165 

Death  of  Crockett 177 

The  Encounter. at  Short  Range 189 

Stonewall  Jackson  Going  Forward  on  the  Plank 

Road  in  Advance  of  the  Line  of  Battle  .    .    .  217 

Battle  between  the  Union  Cavalry  under  Gregg 

and  the  Confederate  Cavalry  under  Stuart  .  231 

Major-General  George  A.  Custer 235 

xiii 


Union  Headquarters,  July  3, 1863.  General  Grant 

Receiving  General  Pemberton's  Message    .    .    .  243 

Colonel  Robert  Gould  Shaw 255 

General  Charles  Russell  Lowell 267 

General  Philip  H.  Sheridan 285 

The  Blowing-up  of  the  "Albemarle  " 297 

Admiral  David  G.  Farragut 307 

Abraham  Lincoln 329 

The  picture  on  page  85,  of  "  The  Stcming  of  Stony  Point," 
is  used  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers. 


HERO   TALES 
FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 


"  Hor.  I  saw  him  once;  he  was  a  goodly  king. 
Ham.  He  was  a  man,  take  him  for  all  in  all, 
I  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again." 


Hamlet. 


HERO    TALES 
FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 


WASHINGTON 

THE  brilliant  historian  of  the  English  people* 
has  written  of  Washington,  that  "  no  nobler 
figure  ever  stood  in  the  fore-front  of  a  nation's 
life."  In  any  book  which  undertakes  to  tell,  no 
matter  how  slightly,  the  story  of  some  of  the 
heroic  deeds  of  American  history,  that  noble 
figure  must  always  stand  in  the  fore-front.  But 
to  sketch  the  life  of  Washington  even  in  the  bar- 
est outline  is  to  write  the  history  of  the  events 
which  made  the  United  States  independent  and 
gave  birth  to  the  American  nation.  Even  to  give 
a  list  of  what  he  did,  to  name  his  battles  and  re- 
count his  acts  as  president,  would  be  beyond  the 
limit  and  the  scope  of  this  book.  Yet  it  is  always 
possible  to  recall  the  man  and  to  consider  what 
he  was  and  what  he  meant  for  us  and  for  man- 

*  John  Richard  Green. 


2  HERO   TALES    FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

kind.  He  is  worthy  the  study  and  the  remem- 
brance of  all  men,  and  to  Americans  he  is  at  once 
a  great  glory  of  their  past  and  an  inspiration  and 
an  assurance  of  their  future. 

To  understand  Washington  at  all  we  must  first 
strip  off  all  the  myths  which  have  gathered  about 
him.  We  must  cast  aside  into  the  dust-heaps  all 
the  wretched  inventions  of  the  cherry-tree  vari- 
ety, which  were  fastened  upon  him  nearly  seventy 
years  after  his  birth.  We  must  look  at  him  as  he 
looked  at  life  and  the  facts  about  him,  without  any 
illusion  or  deception,  and  no  man  in  history  can 
better  stand  such  a  scrutiny. 

Born  of  a  distinguished  family  in  the  days 
when  the  American  colonies  were  still  ruled  by 
an  aristocracy,  Washington  started  with  all  that 
good  birth  and  tradition  could  give.  Beyond 
this,  however,  he  had  little.  His  family  was  poor, 
his  mother  was  left  early  a  widow,  and  he  was 
forced  after  a  very  limited  education  to  go  out 
into  the  world  to  fight  for  himself.  He  had 
strong  within  him  the  adventurous  spirit  of  his 
race.  He  became  a  surveyor,  and  in  the  pursuit 
of  this  profession  plunged  into  the  wilderness, 
where  he  soon  grew  to  be  an  expert  hunter  and 
backwoodsman.  Even  as  a  boy  the  gravity  of 
his  character  and  his  mental  and  physical 
vieor  commended  him  to  those  about  him,  and 
responsibility  and    military  command  were    put 


WASHINGTON  3 

in  his  hands  at  an  age  when  most  young  men 
are  just  leaving  college.  As  the  times  grew 
threatening  on  the  frontier,  he  was  sent  on  a 
perilous  mission  to  the  Indians,  in  which,  after 
passing  through  many  hardships  and  dangers, 
he  achieved  success.  When  the  troubles  came 
with  France  it  was  by  the  soldiers  under  his 
command  that  the  first  shots  were  fired  in  the 
war  which  was  to  determine  whether  the  North 
American  continent  should  be  French  or  English. 
In  his  earliest  expedition  he  was  defeated  by  the 
enemy.  Later  he  was  with  Braddock,  and  it  was 
he  who  tried  to  rally  the  broken  English  army  on 
the  stricken  field  near  Fort  Duquesne.  On 
that  day  of  surprise  and  slaughter  he  displayed 
not  only  cool  courage  but  the  reckless  daring 
which  was  one  of  his  chief  characteristics.  He 
so  exposed  himself  that  bullets  passed  through 
his  coat  and  hat,  and  the  Indians  and  the  French 
who  tried  to  bring  him  down  thought  he  bore  a 
charmed  life.  He  afterwards  served  with  distinc- 
tion all  through  the  French  war,  and  when  peace 
came  he  went  back  to  the  estate  which  he  had 
inherited  from  his  brother,  the  most  admired  man 
in  Virginia. 

At  that  time  he  married,  and  during  the  ensu- 
ing years  he  lived  the  life  of  a  Virginia  planter, 
successful  in  his  private  affairs  and  serving  the 
public  effectively  but  quietly  as  a  member  of  the 


4  HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

House  of  Burgesses.  When  the  troubles  with 
the  mother  country  began  to  thicken  he  was  slow 
to  take  extreme  ground,  but  he  never  wavered 
in  his  belief  that  all  attempts  to  oppress  the  colo- 
nies should  be  resisted,  and  when  he  once  took 
up  his  position  there  was  no  shadow  of  turning. 
He  was  one  of  Virginia's  delegates  to  the  first 
Continental  Congress,  and,  although  he  said  but 
little,  he  was  regarded  by  all  the  representatives 
from  the  other  colonies  as  the  strongest  man 
among  them.  There  was  something  about  him 
even  then  which  commanded  the  respect  and  the 
confidence  of  every  one  who  came  in  contact 
with  him. 

It  was  from  New  England,  far  removed  from 
his  own  State,  that  the  demand  came  for  his 
appointment  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  Amer- 
ican army.  Silently  he  accepted  the  duty,  and, 
leaving  Philadelphia,  took  command  of  tjie  army 
at  Cambridge.  There  is  no  need  to  trace  him 
through  the  events  that  followed.  From  the  time 
when  he  drew  his  sword  under  the  famous  elm 
tree,  he  was  the  embodiment  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  without  him  that  revolution  would 
have  failed  almost  at  the  start.  How  he  carried 
it  to  victory  through  defeat  and  trial  and  every 
possible  obstacle  is  known  to  all  men. 

When  it  was  all  over  he  found  himself  facing  a 
new  situation.      He  was  the  idol  of  the  country 


WASHINGTON  5 

and  of  his  soldiers.  The  army  was  unpaid,  and 
the  veteran  troops,  with  arms  in  their  hands,  were 
eager  to  have  him  take  control  of  the  disordered 
country  as  Cromwell  had  done  in  England  a  little 
more  than  a  century  before.  With  the  army  at 
his  back,  and  supported  by  the  great  forces  which, 
in  every  community,  desire  order  before  every- 
thing else,  and  are  ready  to  assent  to  any  arrange- 
ment which  will  bring  peace  and  quiet,  nothing 
would  have  been  easier  than  for  Washington  to 
have  made  himself  the  ruler  of  the  new  nation. 
But  that  was  not  his  conception  of  duty,  and  he 
not  only  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such 
a  movement  himself,  but  he  repressed,  by  his 
dominant  personal  influence,  all  such  intentions 
on  the  part  of  the  army.  On  the  23d  of  Decem- 
ber, 1783,  he  met  the  Congress  at  Annapolis,  and 
there  resigned  his  commission.  What  he  then 
said  is  one  of  the  two  most  memorable  speeches 
ever  made  in  the  United  States,  and  is  also  mem- 
orable for  its  meaning  and  spirit  among  all 
speeches  ever  made  by  men.  He  spoke  as 
follows : 

Mr.  President  : — The  great  events  on  which  my  resigna- 
tion depended  having  at  length  taken  place,  I  have  now  the 
honor  of  offering  my  sincere  congratulations  to  Congress,  and 
of  presenting  myself  before  them,  to  surrender  into  their  hands 
the  trust  committed  to  me  and  to  claim  the  indulgence  of 
retiring  from  the  service  of  my  country. 

Happy  in  the  confirmation  of  our  independence  and  sov- 


6  HERO    TALES    FROM"  AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ereignty,  and  pleased  with  the  opportunity  afforded  the  United 
States  of  becoming  a  respectable  nation,  I  resign  with  satisfac- 
tion the  appointment  I  accepted  with  diffidence ;  a  diffidence 
in  my"  abilities  to  accomplish  so  arduous  a  task,  which,  how- 
ever, was  superseded  by  a  confidence  in  the  rectitude  of  our 
cause,  the  support  of  the  supreme  power  of  the  Union,  and  the 
patronage  of  Heaven. 

The  successful  termination  of  the  war  has  verified  the  most 
sanguine  expectations,  and  my  gratitude  for  the  interposition 
of  Providence  and  the  assistance  I  have  received  from  my 
countrymen  increases  with  every  review  of  the  momentous 
contest. 

While  I  repeat  my  obligations  to  the  Army  in  general,  I 
should  do  injustice  to  my  own  feelings  not  to  acknowledge,  in 
this  place,  the  peculiar  services  and  distinguished  merits  of  the 
Gentlemen  who  have  been  attached  to  my  person  during  the 
war.  It  was  impossible  that  the  choice  of  confidential  officers 
to  compose  my  family  should  have  been  more  fortunate.  Per- 
mit me,  sir,  to  recommend  in  particular  those  who  have  con- 
tinued in  service  to  the  present  moment  as  worthy  of  the  favor- 
able notice  and  patronage  of  Congress. 

I  consider  it  an  indispensable  duty  to  close  this  last  solemn 
act  of  my  official  life  by  commending  the  interests  of  our 
dearest  country  to  the  protection  of  Almighty  God,  and  those 
who  have  the  superintendence  of  them  to  His  holy  keeping. 

Having  now  finished  the  work  assigned  me,  I  retire  from 
the  great  theatre  of  action,  and,  bidding  an  affectionate  fare- 
well to  this  august  body,  under  whose  orders  I  have  so  long 
acted,  I  here  offer  my  commission  and  take  my  leave  of  all 
the  employments  of  public  life. 

The  great  master  of  English  fiction,  writing  of 
this  scene  at  Annapolis,  says:  "Which  was  the 
most  splendid  spectacle  ever  witnessed — the 
opening  feast  of  Prince  George  in  London,  or  the 


WASHINGTON  7 

resignation  of  Washington  ?  Which  is  the  noble 
character  for  after  ages  to  admire — yon  fribble 
dancing  in  lace  and  spangles,  or  yonder  hero  who 
sheathes  his  sword  after  a  life  of  spotless  honor, 
a  purity  unreproached,  a  courage  indomitable  and 
a  consummate  victory  ?  " 

Washington  did  not  refuse  the  dictatorship,  or, 
rather,  the  opportunity  to  take  control  of  the 
country,  because  he  feared  heavy  responsibility, 
but  solely  because,  as  a  high-minded  and  patriotic 
man,  he  did  not  believe  in  meeting  the  situation 
in  that  way.  He  was,  moreover,  entirely  devoid 
of  personal  ambition,  and  had  no  vulgar  longing 
for  personal  power.  After  resigning  his  commis- 
sion he  returned  quietly  to  Mount  Vernon,  but 
he  did  not  hold  himself  aloof  from  public  affairs. 
On  the  contrary,  he  watched  their  course  with  the 
utmost  anxiety.  He  saw  the  feeble  Confedera- 
tion breaking  to  pieces,  and  he  soon  realized  that 
that  form  of  government  was  an  utter  failure.  In 
a  time  when  no  American  statesman  except 
Hamilton  had  yet  freed  himself  from  the  local 
feelings  of  the  colonial  days,  Washington  was 
thoroughly  national  in  all  his  views.  Out  of  the 
thirteen  jarring  colonies  he  meant  that  a  nation 
should  come,  and  he  saw — what  no  one  else  saw 
—  the  destiny  of  the  country  to  the  westward. 
He  wished  a  nation  founded  which  should  cross 
the  Alleghanies,  and,   holding  the  mouths  of  the 


8  HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Mississippi,  take  possession  of  all  that  vast  and 
then  unknown  region.  For  these  reasons  he 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  national  movement,  and 
to  him  all  men  turned  who  desired  a  better  union 
and  sought  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos.  With 
him  Hamilton  and  Madison  consulted  in  the  pre- 
liminary stages  which  were  to  lead  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  new  system.  It  was  his  vast  personal 
influence  which  made  that  movement  a  success, 
and  when  the  convention  to  form  a  constitution 
met  at  Philadelphia,  he  presided  over  its  delibera- 
tions, and  it  was  his  commanding  will  which, 
more  than  anything  else,  brought  a  constitution 
through  difficulties  and  conflicting  interests  which 
more  than  once  made  any  result  seem  well-nigh 
hopeless. 

When  the  Constitution  formed  at  Philadelphia 
had  been  ratified  by  the  States,  all  men  turned  to 
Washington  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment. As  he  had  borne  the  burden  of  the 
Revolution,  so  he  now  took  up  the  task  of  bring- 
ing the  government  of  the  Constitution  into  exist- 
ence. For  eight  years  he  served  as  president. 
He  came  into  office  with  a  paper  constitution,  the 
heir  of  a  bankrupt,  broken-down  confederation. 
He  left  the  United  States,  when  he  went  out  of 
office,  an  effective  and  vigorous  government. 
When  he  was  inaugurated,  we  had  nothing  but 
the  clauses  of  the  Constitution  as  agreed  to  by  the 


flfM 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 


WASHINGTON  n 

Convention.  When  he  laid  down  the  presidency, 
we  had  an  organized  government,  an  established 
revenue,  a  funded  debt,  a  high  credit,  an  efficient 
system  of  banking,  a  strong  judiciary,  and  an  army. 
We  had  a  vigorous  and  well-defined  foreign  pol- 
icy ;  we  had  recovered  the  western  posts,  which, 
in  the  hands  of  the  British,  had  fettered  our  march 
to  the  west ;  and  we  had  proved  our  power  to 
maintain  order  at  home,  to  repress  insurrection, 
to  collect  the  national  taxes,  and  to  enforce  the 
laws  made  by  Congress.  Thus  Washington  had 
shown  that  rare  combination  of  the  leader  who 
could  first  destroy  by  revolution,  and  who,  having 
led  his  country  through  a  great  civil  war,  was 
then  able  to  build  up  a  new  and  lasting  fabric 
upon  the  ruins  of  a  system  which  had  been  over- 
thrown. At  the  close  of  his  official  service  he 
returned  again  to  Mount  Vernon,  and,  after  a  few 
years  of  quiet  retirement,  died  just  as  the  century 
in  which  he  had  played  so  great  a  part  was 
closing. 

Washington  stands  among  the  greatest  men 
of  human  history,  and  those  in  the  same  rank 
with  him  are  very  few.  Whether  measured  by 
what  he  did,  or.  what  he  was,  or  by  the  effect  of 
his  work  upon  the  history  of  mankind,  in  every 
aspect  he  is  entitled  to  the  place  he  holds  among 
the  greatest  of  his  race.  Few  men  in  all  time 
have  such  a  record  of  achievement.     Still  fewer 


12         HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

can  show  at  the  end  of  a  career  so  crowded  with 
high  deeds  and  memorable  victories  a  life  so  free 
from  spot,  a  character  so  unselfish  and  so  pure,  a 
fame  so  void  of  doubtful  points  demanding  either 
defense  or  explanation.  Eulogy  of  such  a  life  is 
needless,  but  it  is  always  important  to  recall  and 
to  freshly  remember  just  what  manner  of  man  he 
was.  In  the  first  place  he  was  physically  a  strik- 
ing figure.  He  was  very  tall,  powerfully  made, 
with  a  strong,  handsome  face.  He  was  remark- 
ably muscular  and  powerful.  As  a  boy  he  was 
a  leader  in  all  outdoor  sports.  No  one  could  fling 
the  bar  further  than  he,  and  no  one  could  ride 
more  difficult  horses.  As  a  young  man  he  became 
a  woodsman  and  hunter.  Day  after  day  he  could 
tramp  through  the  wilderness  with  his  gun  and 
his  surveyor's  chain,  and  then  sleep  at  night 
beneath  the  stars.  He  feared  no  exposure  or 
fatigue,  and  outdid  the  hardiest  backwoodsman 
in  following  a  winter  trail  and  swimming  icy 
streams.  This  habit  of  vigorous  bodily  exercise 
he  carried  through  life.  Whenever  he  was  at 
Mount  Vernon  he  gave  a  large  part  of  his  time 
to  fox-hunting,  riding  after  his  hounds  through 
the  most  difficult  country.  His  physical  power 
and  endurance  counted  for  much  in  his  success 
when  he  commanded  his  army,  and  when  the 
heavy  anxieties  of  general  and  president  weighed 
upon  his  mind  and  heart. 


WASHINGTON  13 

He  was  an  educated,  but  not  a  learned  man. 
He  read  well  and  remembered  what  he  read,  but 
his  life  was,  from  the  beginning,  a  life  of  action, 
and  the  world  of  men  was  his  school.  He  was 
not  a  military  genius  like  Hannibal,  or  Csesar,  or 
Napoleon,  of  which  the  world  has  had  only  three 
or  four  examples.  But  he  was  a  great  soldier  of 
the  type  which  the  English  race  has  produced, 
like  Marlborough  and  Cromwell,  Wellington, 
Grant,  and  Lee.  He  was  patient  under  defeat, 
capable  of  large  combinations,  a  stubborn  and 
often  reckless  fighter,  a  winner  of  battles,  but 
much  more,  a  conclusive  winner  in  a  long  war  of 
varying  fortunes.  He  was,  in  addition,  what  very 
few  great  soldiers  or  commanders  have  ever  been, 
a  great  constitutional  statesman,  able  to  lead  a 
people  along  the  paths  of  free  government  with- 
out undertaking  himself  to  play  the  part  of  the 
strong  man,  the  usurper,  or  the  savior  of  society. 

He  was  a  very  silent  man.  Of  no  man  of 
equal  importance  in  the  world's  history  have  we 
so  few  sayings  of  a  personal  kind.  He  was  ready 
enough  to  talk  or  to  write  about  the  public  duties 
which  he  had  in  hand,  but  he  hardly  ever  talked 
of  himself.  Yet  there  can  be  no  greater  error 
than  to  suppose  Washington  cold  and  unfeeling, 
because  of  his  silence  and  reserve.  He  was  by 
nature  a  man  of  strong  desires  and  stormy  pas- 
sions.     Now  and  again  he  would  break  out,  even 


14         HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

as  late  as  the  presidency,  into  a  gust  of  anger 
that  would  sweep  everything  before  it.  He  was 
always  reckless  of  personal  danger,  and  had  a 
fierce  fighting  spirit  which  nothing  could  check 
when  it  was  once  unchained. 

But  as  a  rule  these  fiery  impulses  and  strong 
passions  were  under  the  absolute  control  of  an 
iron  will,  and  they  never  clouded  his  judgment 
or  warped  his  keen  sense  of  justice. 

But  if  he  was  not  of  a  cold  nature,  still  less  was 
he  hard  or  unfeeling.  His  pity  always  went  out 
to  the  poor,  the  oppressed,  or  the  unhappy,  and 
he  was  all  that  was  kind  and  gentle  to  those 
immediately  about  him. 

We  have  to  look  carefully  into  his  life  to  learn 
all  these  things,  for  the  world  saw  only  a  silent, 
reserved  man,  of  courteous  and  serious  manner, 
who  seemed  to  stand  alone  and  apart,  and  who 
impressed  every  one  who  came  near  him  with  a 
sense  of  awe  and  reverence. 

One  quality  he  had  which  was,  perhaps,  more 
characteristic  of  the  man  and  his  greatness  than 
any  other.  This  was  his  perfect  veracity  of  mind. 
He  was,  of  course,  the  soul  of  truth  and  honor,  but 
he  was  even  more  than  that.  He  never  deceived 
himself.  He  always  looked  facts  squarely  in  the 
face  and  dealt  with  them  as  such,  dreaming  no 
dreams,  cherishing  no  delusions,  asking  no  impos- 


WASHINGTON  15 

sibilities, — just  to  others  as  to  himself,  and  thus 
winning  alike  in  war  and  in  peace. 

He  gave  dignity  as  well  as  victory  to  his  coun- 
try and  his  cause.  He  was,  in  truth,  a  "character 
for  after  ages  to  admire." 


DANIEL    BOONE 
AND  THE  FOUNDING  OF   KENTUCKY 


.   .   .   Boone  lived  hunting  up  to  ninety  ; 

And,  what  's  still  stranger,  left  behind  a  name 
For  which  men  vainly  decimate  the  throng, 

Not  only  famous,  but  of  that  good  fame, 

Without  which  glory  's  but  a  tavern  song, — 

Simple,  serene,  the  antipodes  of  shame, 

Which  hate  nor  envy  e'er  could  tinge  with  wrong; 

'T  is  true  he  shrank  from  men,  even  of  his  nation ; 

When  they  built  up  unto  his  darling  trees, 
He  moved  some  hundred  miles  off,  for  a  station 

Where  there  were  fewer  houses  and  more  ease : 

But  where  he  met  the  individual  man, 
He  showed  himself  as  kind  as  mortal  can. 

The  freeborn  forest  found  and  kept  them  free, 
And  fresh  as  is  a  torrent  or  a  tree. 

And  tall,  and  strong,  and  swift  of  foot  were  they, 
Beyond  the  dwarfing  city's  pale  abortions, 

Because  their  thoughts  had  never  been  the  prey 

Of  care  or  gain  ;  the  green  woods  were  their  portions 

Simple  they  were,  not  savage  ;  and  their  rifles, 
Though  very  true,  were  yet  not  used  for  trifles. 


Serene,  not  sullen,  were  the  solitudes 
Of  this  unsighing  people  of  the  woods. 

—  Byron. 


DANIEL   BOONE 
AND  THE  FOUNDING  OF  KENTUCKY 

DANIEL  BOONE  will  always  occupy  a 
unique  place  in  our  history  as  the  archetype 
of  the  hunter  and  wilderness  wanderer.  He  was 
a  true  pioneer,  and  stood  at  the  head  of  that  class 
of  Indian-fighters,  game -hunters,  forest-fellers, 
and  backwoods  farmers  who,  generation  after  gen- 
eration, pushed  westward  the  border  of  civili- 
zation from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Pacific.  As 
he  himself  said,  he  was  "an  instrument  ordained 
of  God  to  settle  the  wilderness."  Born  in  Penn- 
sylvania, he  drifted  south  into  western  North 
Carolina,  and  settled  on  what  was  then  the 
extreme  frontier.  There  he  married,  built  a  log 
cabin,  and  hunted,  chopped  trees,  and  tilled  the 
ground  like  any  other  frontiersman.  The  Alle- 
ghany Mountains  still  marked  a  boundary  beyond 
which  the  settlers  dared  not  go  ;  for  west  of  them 
lay  immense  reaches  of  frowning  forest,  uninhab- 
ited save  by  bands  of  warlike  Indians.  Occa- 
sionally   some   venturesome    hunter   or   trapper 


20        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

penetrated  this  immense  wilderness,  and  returned 
witji  strange  stories  of  what  he  had  seen  and 
done. 

In  1 769  Boone,  excited  by  these  vague  and 
wondrous  tales,  determined  himself  to  cross  the 
mountains  and  find  out  what  manner  of  land  it 
was  that  lay  beyond.  With  a  few  chosen  com- 
panions he  set  out,  making  his  own  trail  through 
the  gloomy  forest.  After  weeks  of  wandering, 
he  at  last  emerged  into  the  beautiful  and  fertile 
country  of  Kentucky,  for  which,  in  after  years, 
the  red  men  and  the  white  strove  with  such  obsti- 
nate fury  that  it  grew  to  be  called  "the  dark  and 
bloody  ground."  But  when  Boone  first  saw  it,  it 
was  a  fair  and  smiling  land  of  groves  and  glades 
and  running  waters,  where  the  open  forest  grew 
tall  and  beautiful,  and  where  innumerable  herds 
of  game  grazed,  roaming  ceaselessly  to  and  fro 
along  the  trails  they  had  trodden  during  countless 
generations.  Kentucky  was  not  owned  by  any 
Indian  tribe,  and  was  visited  only  by  wandering 
war-parties  and  hunting-parties  who  came  from 
among  the  savage  nations  living  north  of  the 
Ohio   or  south   of  the  Tennessee. 

A  roving  war-party  stumbled  upon  one  of 
Boone's  companions  and  killed  him,  and  the  others 
then  left  Boone  and  journeyed  home  ;  but  his 
brother  came  out  to  join  him,  and  the  two  spent 
the  winter  together.      Self-reliant,   fearless,    and 


DANIEL   BOONE    IN    THE    FRONTIER    WOODS.       AT    CLOSE    QUARTERS. 


DANIEL   BOONE  23 

possessed  of  great  bodily  strength  and  hardihood, 
they  cared  little  for  the  loneliness.  The  teeming 
myriads  of  game  furnished  abundant  food  ;  the 
herds  of  shaggy-maned  bison  and  noble-antlered 
elk,  the  bands  of  deer  and  the  numerous  black 
bear,  were  all  ready  for  the  rifle,  and  they  were 
tame  and  easily  slain.  The  wolf  and  the  cougar, 
too,  sometimes  fell  victims  to  the  prowess  of  the 
two  hunters. 

At  times  they  slept  in  hollow  trees,  or  in  some 
bush  lean-to  of  their  own  making  ;  at  other  times, 
when  they  feared  Indians,  they  changed  their 
resting-place  every  night,  and  after  making  a  fire 
would  go  off  a  mile  or  two  in  the  woods  to  sleep. 
Surrounded  by  brute  and  human  foes,  they  owed 
their  lives  to  their  sleepless  vigilance,  their  keen 
senses,  their  eagle  eyes,  and  their  resolute  hearts. 

When  the  spring  came,  and  the  woods  were 
white  with  the  dogwood  blossoms,  and  crimsoned 
with  the  red-bud,  Boone's  brother  left  him,  and 
Daniel  remained  for  three  months  alone  in  the 
wilderness.  The  brother  soon  came  back  agfain 
with  a  party  of  hunters;  and  other  parties  like- 
wise came  in,  to  wander  for  months  and  years 
through  the  wilderness  ;  and  they  wrought  huge 
havoc  among  the  vast  herds  of  game. 

In  1 771  Boone  returned  to  his  home.  Two 
years  later  he  started  to  lead  a  party  of  settlers 
to  the  new  country ;  but  while  passing  through 


24        HERO    TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  frowning  defiles  of  Cumberland  Gap,  they 
were  attacked  by  Indians,  and  driven  back — two 
of  Boone's  own  sons  being  slain.  In  1775,  how- 
ever, he  made  another  attempt ;  and  this  attempt 
was  successful.  The  Indians  attacked  the  new- 
comers ;  but  by  this  time  the  parties  of  would-be 
settlers  were  sufficiently  numerous  to  hold  their 
own.  They  beat  back  the  Indians,  and  built 
rough  little  hamlets,  surrounded  by  log  stockades, 
at  Boonesborough  and  Harrodsburg  ;  and  the  per- 
manent settlement  of  Kentucky  had  begun. 

The  next  few  years  were  passed  by  Boone 
amid  unending  Indian  conflicts.  He  was  a 
leader  among  the  settlers,  both  in  peace  and  in 
war.  At  one  time  he  represented  them  in  the 
House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  ;  at  another  time 
he  was  a  member  of  the  first  little  Kentucky  par- 
liament itself;  and  he  became  a  colonel  of  the 
frontier  militia.  He  tilled  the  land,  and  he 
chopped  the  trees  himself;  he  helped  to  build 
the  cabins  and  stockades  with  his  own  hands, 
wielding  the  long-handled,  light-headed  frontier 
ax  as  skilfully  as  other  frontiersmen.  His  main 
business  was  that  of  surveyor,  for  his  knowledge 
of  the  country,  and  his  ability  to  travel  through 
it,  in  spite  of  the  danger  from  Indians,  created 
much  demand  for  his  services  among  people  who 
wished  to  lay  off  tracts  of  wild  land  for  their  own 
future  use.      But  whatever  he  did,  and  wherever 


DANIEL   BOONE  25 

he  went,  he  had  to  be  sleeplessly  on  the  lookout 
for  his  Indian  foes.  When  he  and  his  fellows 
tilled  the  stump-dotted  fields  of  corn,  one  or  more 
of  the  party  were  always  on  guard,  with  weapon 
at  the  ready,  for  fear  of  lurking  savages.  When 
he  went  to  the  House  of  Burgesses  he  carried  his 
long  rifle,  and  traversed  roads  not  a  mile  of  which 
was  free  from  the  danger  of  Indian  attack.  The 
settlements  in  the  early  years  depended  exclu- 
sively upon  game  for  their  meat,  and  Boone  was 
the  mightiest  of  all  the  hunters,  so  that  upon  him 
devolved  the  task  of  keeping  his  people  supplied. 
He  killed  many  buffaloes,  and  pickled  the  buffalo 
beef  for  use  in  winter.  He  killed  great  numbers 
of  black  bear,  and  made  bacon  of  them,  precisely 
as  if  they  had  been  hogs.  The  common  game 
were  deer  and  elk.  At  that  time  none  of  the 
hunters  of  Kentucky  would  waste  a  shot  on  any- 
thing so  small  as  a  prairie-chicken  or  wild  duck  ; 
but  they  sometimes  killed  geese  and  swans  when 
they  came  south  in  winter  and  lit  on  the  rivers. 
But  whenever  Boone  went  into  the  woods  after 
game,  he  had  perpetually  to  keep  watch  lest  he 
himself  might  be  hunted  in  turn.  He  never  lay 
in  wait  at  a  game-lick,  save  with  ears  strained  to 
hear  the  approach  of  some  crawling  red  foe.  He 
never  crept  up  to  a  turkey  he  heard  calling,  with- 
out exercising  the  utmost  care  to  see  that  it  was 
not  an  Indian ;  for  one  of  the  favorite  devices  of 


26         HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

the  Indians  was  to  imitate  the  turkey  call,  and 
thus  allure  within  range  some  inexperienced 
hunter. 

Besides  this  warfare,  which  went  on  in  the  midst 
of  his  usual  vocations,  Boone  frequently  took  the 
field  on  set  expeditions  against  the  savages. 
Once  when  he  and  a  party  of  other  men  were 
making  salt  at  a  lick,  they  were  surprised  and 
carried  off  by  the  Indians.  The  old  hunter  was 
a  prisoner  with  them  for  some  months,  but  finally 
made  his  escape  and  came  home  through  the 
trackless  woods  as  straight  as  the  wild  pigeon 
flies.  He  was  ever  on  the  watch  to  ward  off  the 
Indian  inroads,  and  to  follow  the  war-parties,  and 
try  to  rescue  the  prisoners.  Once  his  own  daugh- 
ter, and  two  other  girls  who  were  with  her,  were 
carried  off  by  a  band  of  Indians.  Boone  raised 
some  friends  and  followed  the  trail  steadily  for 
two  days  and  a  night;  then  they  came  to  where 
the  Indians  had  killed  a  buffalo  calf  and  were 
camped  around  it.  Firing  from  a  little  distance, 
the  whites  shot  two  of  the  Indians,  and,  rushing 
in,  rescued  the  girls.  On  another  occasion,  when 
Boone  had  gone  to  visit  a  salt-lick  with  his  bro- 
ther, the  Indians  ambushed  them  and  shot  the 
latter.  Boone  himself  escaped,  but  the  Indians 
followed  him  for  three  miles  by  the  aid  of  a  track- 
ing dog,  until  Boone  turned,  shot  the  dog,  and  then 
eluded  his   pursuers.      In   company  with   Simon 


DANIEL   BOONE  27 

Kenton  and  many  other  noted  hunters  and  wil- 
derness warriors,  he  once  and  again  took  part  in 
expeditions  into  the  Indian  country,  where  they 
killed  the  braves  and  drove  off  the  horses.  Twice 
bands  of  Indians,  accompanied  by  French,  Tory, 
and  British  partizans  from  Detroit,  bearing  the 
flag  of  Great  Britain,  attacked  Boonesborough. 
In  each  case  Boone  and  his  fellow-settlers  beat 
them  off  with  loss.  At  the  fatal  battle  of  the  Blue 
Licks,  in  which  two  hundred  of  the  best  riflemen 
of  Kentucky  were  beaten  with  terrible  slaughter 
by  a  great  force  of  Indians  from  the  lakes,  Boone 
commanded  the  left  wing.  Leading  his  men, 
rifle  in  hand,  he  pushed  back  and  overthrew  the 
force  against  him ;  but  meanwhile  the  Indians 
destroyed  the  right  wing  and  center,  and  got 
round  in  his  rear,  so  that  there  was  nothing  left 
for  Boone's  men  except  to  flee  with  all  possible 
speed. 

As  Kentucky  became  settled,  Boone  grew  rest- 
less and  ill  at  ease.  He  loved  the  wilderness ; 
he  loved  the  great  forests  and  the  great  prairie - 
like  glades,  and  the  life  in  the  little  lonely  cabin, 
where  from  the  door  he  could  see  the  deer  come 
out  into  the  clearing  at  nightfall.  The  neighbor- 
hood of  his  own  kind  made  him  feel  cramped  and 
ill  at  ease.  So  he  moved  ever  westward  with  the 
frontier ;  and  as  Kentucky  filled  up  he  crossed 
the  Mississippi  and  settled  on  the  borders  of  the 


28         HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

prairie  country  of  Missouri,  where  the  Spaniards, 
who  ruled  the  territory,  made  him  an  alcalde,  or 
judge.  He  lived  to  a  great  age,  and  died  out  on 
the  border,  a  backwoods  hunter  to  the  last. 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  AND  THE 
CONQUEST  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 


Have  the  elder  races  halted  ? 
Do  they  droop  and  end  their  lesson,  wearied  over  there  beyond  the 

seas  ? 
We  take  up  the  task  eternal,  and  the  burden  and  the  lesson, 

Pioneers  !  O  Pioneers  ! 

All  the  past  we  leave  behind, 
We  debouch  upon  a  newer,  mightier  world,  varied  world; 
Fresh  and  strong  the  world  we  seize,  world  of  labor  and  the  march, 

Pioneers  !  O  Pioneers  ! 

We  detachments  steady  throwing, 
Down  the  edges,  through  the  passes,  up  the  mountains  steep, 
Conquering,  holding,  daring,  venturing,  as  we  go  the  unknown 
ways, 

Pioneers  !  O  Pioneers  ! 

The  sachem  blowing  the  smoke  first  towards  the  sun  and  then 
towards  the  earth, 

The  drama  of  the  scalp  dance  enacted  with  painted  faces  and  gut- 
tural exclamations, 

The  setting  out  of  the  war-party,  the  long  and  stealthy  march, 

The  single  file,  the  swinging  hatchets,  the  surprise  and  slaughter 
of  enemies. 

—  Whitman. 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  AND  THE 
CONQUEST  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 

IN  1776,  when  independence  was  declared,  the 
United  States  included  only  the  thirteen  origi- 
nal States  on  the  sea-board.  With  the  exception 
of  a  few  hunters  there  were  no  white  men  west  of 
the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  there  was  not  even 
an  American  hunter  in  the  great  country  out  of 
which  we  have  since  made  the  States  of  Illinois, 
Indiana,  Ohio,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin.  All  this 
region  north  of  the  Ohio  River  then  formed  a  part 
of  the  Province  of  Quebec.  It  was  a  wilderness 
of  forests  and  prairies,  teeming  with  game,  and 
inhabited  by  many  warlike  tribes  of  Indians. 

Here  and  there  through  it  were  dotted  quaint 
little  towns  of  French  Creoles,  the  most  impor- 
tant being  Detroit  Vincennes  on  the  Wabash, 
and  Kaskaskia  and  Kahokia  on  the  Illinois.  These 
French  villages  were  ruled  by  British  officers  com- 
manding small  bodies  of  regular  soldiers  or  Tory 
rangers  and  Creole  partizans.  The  towns  were 
completely  in  the  power  of  the  British  govern- 


32         HERO    TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ment;  none  of  the  American  States  had  actual  pos- 
session of  a  foot  of  property  in  the  Northwestern 
Territory. 

The  Northwest  was  acquired  in  the  midst  of 
the  Revolution  only  by  armed  conquest,  and  if  it 
had  not  been  so  acquired,  it  would  have  remained 
a  part  of  the  British  Dominion  of  Canada. 

The  man  to  whom  this  conquest  was  due  was 
a  famous  backwoods  leader,  a  mighty  hunter,  a 
noted  Indian-fighter,  George  Rogers  Clark.  He 
was  a  very  strong  man,  with  light  hair  and  blue 
eyes.  He  was  of  good  Virginian  family.  Early  in 
his  youth,  he  embarked  on  the  adventurous  career 
of  a  backwoods  surveyor,  exactly  as  Washington 
and  so  many  other  young  Virginians  of  spirit  did 
at  that  period.  He  traveled  out  to  Kentucky  soon 
after  it  was  founded  by  Boone,  and  lived  there  for 
a  year,  either  at  the  stations  or  camping  by  him- 
self in  the  woods,  surveying,  hunting,  and  making 
war  against  the  Indians  like  any  other  settler ;  but 
all  the  time  his  mind  was  bent  on  vaster  schemes 
than  were  dreamed  of  by  the  men  around  him. 
He  had  his  spies  out  in  the  Northwestern  Terri- 
tory, and  became  convinced  that  with  a  small  force 
of  resolute  backwoodsmen  he  could  conquer  it  for 
the  United  States.  When  he  went  back  to  Vir- 
ginia, Governor  Patrick  Henry  entered  heartily 
into  Clark's  schemes  and  gave  him  authority  to  fit 
out  a  force  for  his  purpose. 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  33 

In  1778,  after  encountering  endless  difficulties 
and  delays,  he  finally  raised  a  hundred  and  fifty 
backwoods  riflemen.  In  May  they  started  down 
the  Ohio  in  flatboats  to  undertake  the  allotted 
task.  They  drifted  and  rowed  downstream  to  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio,  where  Clark  founded  a  log- 
hamlet,  which  has  since  become  the  great  city  of 
Louisville. 

Here  he  halted  for  some  days  and  was  joined 
by  fifty  or  sixty  volunteers  ;  but  a  number  of  the 
men  deserted,  and  when,  after  an  eclipse  of  the  sun, 
Clark  again  pushed  off  to  go  down  with  the  cur- 
rent, his  force  was  but  about  one  hundred  and 
sixty  riflemen.  All,  however,  were  men  on  whom 
he  could  depend  —  men  well  used  to  frontier  war- 
fare. They  were  tall,  stalwart  backwoodsmen, 
clad  in  the  hunting-shirt  and  leggings  that  formed 
the  national  dress  of  their  kind,  and  armed  with 
the  distinctive  weapon  of  the  backwoods,  the  long- 
barreled,  small-bore  rifle. 

Before  reaching  the  Mississippi  the  little  flotilla 
landed,  and  Clark  led  his  men  northward  against 
the  Illinois  towns.  In  one  of  them,  Kaskaskia, 
dwelt  the  British  commander  of  the  entire  district 
up  to  Detroit.  The  small  garrison  and  the  Creole 
militia  taken  together  outnumbered  Clark's  force, 
and  they  were  in  close  alliance  with  the  Indians 
roundabout.  Clark  was  anxious  to  take  the  town 
by  surprise  and  avoid  bloodshed,  as  he  believed 


34        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

he  could  win  over  the  Creoles  to  the  American 
side.  Marching  cautiously  by  night  and  gener- 
ally hiding  by  day,  he  came  to  the  outskirts  of  the 
little  village  on  the  evening  of  July  4,  and  lay  in 
the  woods  near  by  until  after  nightfall. 

Fortune  favored  him.  That  evening  the  offi- 
cers of  the  garrison  had  given  a  great  ball  to  the 
mirth-loving  Creoles,  and  almost  the  entire  pop- 
ulation of  the  village  had  gathered  in  the  fort, 
where  the  dance  was  held.  While  the  revelry  was 
at  its  height,  Clark  and  his  tall  backwoodsmen, 
treading  silently  through  the  darkness,  came  into 
the  town,  surprised  the  sentries,  and  surrounded 
the  fort  without  causing  any  alarm. 

All  the  British  and  French  capable  of  bearing 
arms  were  gathered  in  the  fort  to  take  part  in  or 
look  on  at  the  merrymaking.  When  his  men  were 
posted  Clark  walked  boldly  forward  through  the 
open  door,  and,  leaning  against  the  wall,  looked 
at  the  dancers  as  they  whirled  around  in  the  light 
of  the  flaring  torches.  For  some  moments  no  one 
noticed  him.  Then  an  Indian  who  had  been  lying 
with  his  chin  on  his  hand,  looking  carefully  over 
the  gaunt  figure  of  the  stranger,  sprang  to  his  feet, 
and  uttered  the  wild  war-whoop.  Immediately 
the  dancing  ceased  and  the  men  ran  to  and  fro 
in  confusion  ;  but  Clark,  stepping  forward,  bade 
them  be  at  their  ease,  but  to  remember  that 
henceforth   they  danced   under  the   flag   of  the 


"ALL   DAY   LONG   THE   TROOPS    WADED    IN    ICY   WATER.' 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  37 

United  States,  and  not  under  that  of  Great 
Britain. 

The  surprise  was  complete,  and  no  resistance 
was  attempted.  For  twenty-four  hours  the  Creoles 
were  in  abject  terror.  Then  Clark  summoned 
their  chief  men  together  and  explained  that  he 
came  as  their  ally,  and  not  as  their  foe,  and  that  if 
they  would  join  with  him  they  should  be  citizens  of 
the  American  republic,  and  treated  in  all  respects 
on  an  equality  with  their  comrades.  The  Creoles, 
caring  little  for  the  British,  and  rather  fickle  of 
nature,  accepted  the  proposition  with  joy,  and  with 
the  most  enthusiastic  loyalty  toward  Clark.  Not 
only  that,  but  sending  messengers  to  their  kins- 
men on  the  Wabash,  they  persuaded  the  people 
of  Vincennes  likewise  to  cast  off  their  allegiance 
to  the  British  king,  and  to  hoist  the  American 
flag. 

So  far,  Clark  had  conquered  with  greater  ease 
than  he  had  dared  to  hope.  But  when  the  news 
reached  the  British  governor,  Hamilton,  at  De- 
troit, he  at  once  prepared  to  reconquer  the  land. 
He  had  much  greater  forces  at  his  command  than 
Clark  had ;  and  in  the  fall  of  that  year  he  came 
down  to  Vincennes  by  stream  and  portage,  in  a 
great  fleet  of  canoes  bearing  five  hundred  fight- 
ing men  —  British  regulars,  French  partizans,  and 
Indians.  The  Vincennes  Creoles  refused  to  fight 
against  the  British,  and  the  American  officer  who 


38        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

had  been  sent  thither  by  Clark  had  no  alternative 
but  to  surrender. 

i  If  Hamilton  had  then  pushed  on  and  struck 
Clark  in  Illinois,  having  more  than  treble  Clark's 
force,  he  could  hardly  have  failed  to  win  the  vic- 
tory ;  but  the  season  was  late  and  the  journey  so 
difficult  that  he  did  not  believe  it  could  be  taken. 
Accordingly  he  disbanded  the  Indians  and  sent 
some  of  his  troops  back  to  Detroit,  announcing 
that  when  spring  came  he  would  march  against 
Clark  in  Illinois. 

If  Clark  in  turn  had  awaited  the  blow  he  would 
have  surely  met  defeat ;  but  he  was  a  greater  man 
than  his  antagonist,  and  he  did  what  the  other 
deemed  impossible. 

Finding  that  Hamilton  had  sent  home  some 
of  his  troops  and  dispersed  all  his  Indians,  Clark 
realized  that  his  chance  was  to  strike  before  Ham- 
ilton's soldiers  assembled  again  in  the  spring. 
Accordingly  he  gathered  together  the  pick  of  his 
men,  together  with  a  few  Creoles,  one  hundred 
and  seventy  all  told,  and  set  out  for  Vincennes. 
At  first  the  journey  was  easy  enough,  for  they 
passed  across  the  snowy  Illinois  prairies,  broken 
by  great  reaches  of  lofty  woods.  They  killed 
elk,  buffalo,  and  deer  for  food,  there  being  no 
difficulty  in  getting  all  they  wanted  to  eat ;  and 
at  night  they  built  huge  fires  by  which  to  sleep, 
and  feasted  "like  Indian  war-dancers,"  as  Clark 
said  in  his  report. 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  39 

But  when,  in  the  middle  of  February,  they 
reached  the  drowned  lands  of  the  Wabash,  where 
the  ice  had  just  broken  up  and  everything  was 
flooded,  the  difficulties  seemed  almost  insuperable, 
and  the  march  became  painful  and  laborious  to  a 
degree.  All  day  long  the  troops  waded  in  the 
icy  water,  and  at  night  they  could  with  difficulty 
find  some  little  hillock  on  which  to  sleep.  Only 
Clark's  indomitable  courage  and  cheerfulness 
kept  the  party  in  heart  and  enabled  them  to  per- 
severe. However,  persevere  they  did,  and  at 
last,  on  February  23,  they  came  in  sight  of  the 
town  of  Vincennes.  They  captured  a  Creole 
who  was  out  shooting  ducks,  and  from  him  learned 
that  their  approach  was  utterly  unsuspected,  and 
that  there  were  many  Indians  in  town. 

Clark  was  now  in  some  doubt  as  to  how  to 
make  his  fight.  The  British  regulars  dwelt  in  a 
small  fort  at  one  end  of  the  town,  where  they  had 
two  light  guns  ;  but  Clark  feared  lest,  if  he  made 
a  sudden  night  attack,  the  townspeople  and  In- 
dians would  from  sheer  fright  turn  against  him. 
He  accordingly  arranged,  just  before  he  himself 
marched  in,  to  send  in  the  captured  duck-hunter, 
conveying  a  warning  to  the  Indians  and  the  Cre- 
oles that  he  was  about  to  attack  the  town,  but 
that  his  only  quarrel  was  with  the  British,  and 
that  if  the  other  inhabitants  would  stay  in  their 
own  homes  they  would  not  be  molested. 


40         HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Sending  the  duck-hunter  ahead,  Clark  took  up 
his  march  and  entered  the  town  just  after  night- 
fall. The  news  conveyed  by  the  released  hunter 
astounded  the  townspeople,  and  they  talked  it 
over  eagerly,  and  were  in  doubt  what  to  do.  The 
Indians,  not  knowing  how  great  might  be  the  force 
that  would  assail  the  town,  at  once  took  refuge 
in  the  neighboring  woods,  while  the  Creoles  re- 
tired to  their  own  houses.  The  British  knew 
nothing  of  what  had  happened  until  the  Ameri- 
cans had  actually  entered  the  streets  of  the  lit- 
tle village.  Rushing  forward,  Clark's  men  soon 
penned  the  regulars  within  their  fort,  where  they 
kept  them  surrounded  all  night.  The  next  day 
a  party  of  Indian  warriors,  who  in  the  British  in- 
terest had  been  ravaging  the  settlements  of  Ken- 
tucky, arrived  and  entered  the  town,  ignorant 
that  the  Americans  had  captured  it.  Marching 
boldly  forward  to  the  fort,  they  suddenly  found  it 
beleaguered,  and  before  they  could  flee  they  were 
seized  by  the  backwoodsmen.  In  their  belts 
they  carried  the  scalps  of  the  slain  settlers.  The 
savages  were  taken  red-handed,  and  the  Ameri- 
can frontiersmen  were  in  no  mood  to  show  mercy. 
All  the  Indians  were  tomahawked  in  sight  of  the 
fort. 

For  some  time  the  British  defended  themselves 
well;  but  at  length  their  guns  were  disabled,  all 
of  the  gunners  being  picked  off  by  the  backwoods 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  41 

marksmen,  and  finally  the  garrison  dared  not  so 
much  as  appear  at  a  port-hole,  so  deadly  was  the 
fire  from  the  long  rifles.  Under  such  circum- 
stances Hamilton  was  forced  to  surrender. 

No  attempt  was  afterward  made  to  molest  the 
Americans  in  the  land  they  had  won,  and  upon 
the  conclusion  of  peace  the  Northwest,  which  had 
been  conquered  by  Clark,  became  part  of  the 
United  States. 


THE   BATTLE   OF  TRENTON 


And  such  they  are  —  and  such  they  will  be  found  : 

Not  so  Leonidas  and  Washington, 

Their  every  battle-field  is  holy  ground 

Which  breathes  of  nations  saved,  not  worlds  undone. 

How  sweetly  on  the  ear  such  echoes  sound ! 

While  the  mere  victor's  may  appal  or  stun 

The  servile  and  the  vain,  such  names  will  be 

A  watchword  till  the  future  shall  be  free. 

Byron. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   TRENTON 


IN  December,  1776,  the  American  Revolution 
was  at  its  lowest  ebb.  The  first  burst  of  enthu- 
siasm, which  drove  the  British  back  from  Concord 
and  met  them  hand  to  hand  at  Bunker  Hill,  which 
forced  them  to  abandon  Boston  and  repulsed  their 
attack  at  Charleston,  had  spent  its  force.  The  un- 
disciplined American  forces  called  suddenly  from 
the  workshop  and  the  farm  had  given  way,  under 
the  strain  of  a  prolonged  contest,  and  had  been 
greatly  scattered,  many  of  the  soldiers  returning  to 
their  homes.  The  power  of  England,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  her  disciplined  army  and  abundant  re- 
sources, had  begun  to  tell.  Washington,  fighting 
stubbornly,  had  been  driven  during  the  summer 
and  autumn  from  Long  Island  up  the  Hudson,  and 
New  York  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
British.  Then  Forts  Lee  and  Washington  had 
been  lost,  and  finally  the  Continental  army  had  re- 
treated to  New  Jersey.  On  the  second  of  Decem- 
ber Washington  was  at  Princeton  with  some  three 
thousand  ragged  soldiers,  and  had   escaped   de- 


46        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

struction  only  by  the  rapidity  of  his  movements. 
By  the  middle  of  the  month  General  Howe  felt 
that  the  American  army,  unable  as  he  believed 
either  to  fight  or  to  withstand  the  winter,  must 
soon  dissolve,  and,  posting  strong  detachments  at 
various  points,  he  took  up  his  winter  quarters  in 
New  York.  The  British  general  had  under  his 
command  in  his  various  divisions  twenty-five  thou- 
sand well-disciplined  soldiers,  and  the  conclusion 
he  had  reached  was  not  an  unreasonable  one ; 
everything,  in  fact,  seemed  to  confirm  his  opinion. 
Thousands  of  the  colonists  were  coming  in  and 
accepting  his  amnesty.  The  American  militia  had 
left  the  field,  and  no  more  would  turn  out,  despite 
Washington's  earnest  appeals.  All  that  remained 
of  the  American  Revolution  was  the  little  Conti- 
nental army  and  the  man  who  led  it. 

Yet  even  in  this  dark  hour  Washington  did  not 
despair.  He  sent  in  every  direction  for  troops. 
Nothing  was  forgotten.  Nothing  that  he  could  do 
was  left  undone.  Unceasingly  he  urged  action 
upon  Congress,  and  at  the  same  time  with  indomi- 
table fighting  spirit  he  planned  to  attack  the 
British.  It  was  a  desperate  undertaking  in  the 
face  of  such  heavy  odds,  for  in  all  his  divisions  he 
had  only  some  six  thousand  men,  and  even  these 
were  scattered.  The  single  hope  was  that  by  his 
own  skill  and  courage  he  could  snatch  victory  from 
a  situation  where  victory  seemed  impossible.  With 


THE   BATTLE    OF    TRENTON  47 

the  instinct  of  a  great  commander  he  saw  that  his 
only  chance  was  to  fight  the  British  detachments 
suddenly,  unexpectedly,  and  separately,  and  to  do 
this  not  only  required  secrecy  and  perfect  judg- 
ment, but  also  the  cool,  unwavering  courage  of 
which,  under  such  circumstances,  very  few  men 
have  proved  themselves  capable.  As  Christmas 
approached  his  plans  were  ready.  He  determined 
to  fall  upon  the  British  detachment  of  Hessians, 
under  Colonel  Rahl,  at  Trenton,  and  there  strike 
his  first  blow.  To  each  division  of  his  little  army 
a  part  in  the  attack  was  assigned  with  careful  fore- 
thought. Nothing  was  overlooked  and  nothing 
omitted,  and  then,  for  some  reason  good  or  bad, 
every  one  of  the  division  commanders  failed  to  do 
his  part.  As  the  general  plan  was  arranged,  Gates 
was  to  march  from  Bristol  with  two  thousand  men  ; 
Ewing  was  to  cross  at  Trenton ;  Putnam  was  to 
come  up  from  Philadelphia ;  and  Griffin  was  to 
make  a  diversion  against  Donop.  When  the  mo- 
ment came,  Gates,  who  disapproved  the  plan,  was 
on  his  way  to  Congress  ;  Griffin  abandoned  New 
Jersey  and  fled  before  Donop ;  Putnam  did  not 
attempt  to  leave  Philadelphia ;  and  Ewing  made 
no  effort  to  cross  at  Trenton.  Cadwalader  came 
down  from  Bristol,  looked  at  the  river  and  the 
floating  ice,  and  then  gave  it  up  as  desperate. 
Nothing  remained  except  Washington  himself 
with  the  main  army,  but  he  neither  gave  up,  nor 


48        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

hesitated,  nor  stopped  on  account  of  the  ice,  or  the 
river,  or  the  perils  which  lay  beyond.  On  Christ- 
mas Eve,  when  all  the  Christian  world  was  feasting 
and  rejoicing,  and  while  the  British  were  enjoying 
themselves  in  their  comfortable  quarters,  Wash- 
ington set  out.  With  twenty-four  hundred  men 
he  crossed  the  Delaware  through  the  floating  ice, 
his  boats  managed  and  rowed  by  the  sturdy  fisher- 
men of  Marblehead  from  Glover's  regiment.  The 
crossing  was  successful,  and  he  landed  about  nine 
miles  from  Trenton.  It  was  bitter  cold,  and  the 
sleet  and  snow  drove  sharply  in  the  faces  of  the 
troops.  Sullivan,  marching  by  the  river,  sent  word 
that  the  arms  of  his  soldiers  were  wet.  "  Tell  your 
general,"  was  Washington's  reply  to  the  message, 
"  to  use  the  bayonet,  for  the  town  must  be  taken." 
When  they  reached  Trenton  it  was  broad  day- 
light. Washington,  at  the  front  and  on  the  right 
of  the  line,  swept  down  the  Pennington  road,  and, 
as  he  drove  back  the  Hessian  pickets,  he  heard 
the  shout  of  Sullivan's  men  as,  with  Stark  leading 
the  van,  they  charged  in  from  the  river.  A  com- 
pany of  jaegers  and  of  light  dragoons  slipped 
away.  There  was  some  fighting  in  the  streets, 
but  the  attack  was  so  strong  and  well  calculated 
that  resistance  was  useless.  Colonel  Rahl,  the 
British  commander,  aroused  from  his  revels,  was 
killed  as  he  rushed  out  to  rally  his  men,  and  in  a 
few  moments  all  was  over.     A  thousand  prisoners 


THE    BATTLE    OF   TRENTON  51 

fell  into  Washington's  hands,  and  this  important 
detachment  of  the  enemy  was  cut  off  and  de- 
stroyed. 

The  news  of  Trenton  alarmed  the  British,  and 
Lord  Cornwallis  with  seven  thousand  of  the  best 
troops  started  at  once  from  New  York  in  hot  pur- 
suit of  the  American  army.  Washington,  who  had 
now  rallied  some  five  thousand  men,  fell  back,  skir- 
mishing heavily,  behind  the  Assunpink,  and  when 
Cornwallis  reached  the  river  he  found  the  Ameri- 
can army  awaiting  him  on  the  other  side  of  the 
stream.  Night  was  falling,  and  Cornwallis,  feeling 
sure  of  his  prey,  decided  that  he  would  not  risk  an 
assault  until  the  next  morning.  Many  lessons  had 
not  yet  taught  him  that  it  was  a  fatal  business  to 
give  even  twelve  hours  to  the  great  soldier  opposed 
to  him.  During  the  night  Washington,  leaving 
his  fires  burning  and  taking  a  roundabout  road 
which  he  had  already  reconnoitered,  marched  to 
Princeton.  There  he  struck  another  British  de- 
tachment. A  sharp  fight  ensued,  the  British  divi- 
sion was  broken  and  defeated,  losing  some  five 
hundred  men,  and  Washington  withdrew  after  this 
second  victory  to  the  highlands  of  New  Jersey  to 
rest  and  recruit. 

Frederick  the  Great  is  reported  to  have  said 
that  this  was  the  most  brilliant  campaign  of  the 
century.  With  a  force  very  much  smaller  than 
that  of  the  enemy,  Washington  had  succeeded  in 


52        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

striking  the  British  at  two  places  with  superior 
forces  at  each  point  of  contact.  At  Trenton  he 
had  the  benefit  of  a  surprise,  but  the  second  time 
he  was  between  two  hostile  armies.  He  was 
ready  to  fight  Cornwallis  when  the  latter  reached 
the  Assunpink,  trusting  to  the  strength  of  his 
position  to  make  up  for  his  inferiority  of  numbers. 
But  when  Cornwallis  gave  him  the  delay  of  a 
night,  Washington,  seeing  the  advantage. offered 
by  his  enemy's  mistake,  at  once  changed  his 
whole  plan,  and,  turning  in  his  tracks,  fell  upon 
the  smaller  of  the  two  forces  opposed  to  him, 
wrecking  and  defeating  it  before  the  outgeneraled 
Cornwallis  could  get  up  with  the  main  army. 
Washington  had  thus  shown  the  highest  form  of 
military  skill,  for  there  is  nothing  that  requires  so 
much  judgment  and  knowledge,  so  much  certainty 
of  movement  and  quick  decision,  as  to  meet  a 
superior  enemy  at  different  points,  force  the  fight- 
ing, and  at  each  point  to  outnumber  and  over- 
whelm him. 

But  the  military  part  of  this  great  campaign 
was  not  all.  Many  great  soldiers  have  not  been 
statesmen,  and  have  failed  to  realize  the  political 
necessities  of  the  situation.  Washington  pre- 
sented the  rare  combination  of  a  great  soldier  and 
a  great  statesman  as  well.  He  aimed  not  only 
to  win  battles,  but  by  his  operations  in  the  field 
to  influence  the  political  situation  and  affect  pub- 


THE   BATTLE   OF   TRENTON  53 

lie  opinion.  The  American  Revolution  was  going 
to  pieces.  Unless  some  decisive  victory  could  be 
won  immediately,  it  would  have  come  to  an  end 
in  the  winter  of  1776-77.  This  Washington 
knew,  and  it  was  this  which  nerved  his  arm.  The 
results  justified  his  forethought.  The  victories  of 
Trenton  and  Princeton  restored  the  failing  spirits 
of  the  people,  and,  what  was  hardly  less  impor- 
tant, produced  a  deep  impression  in  Europe  in 
favor  of  the  colonies.  The  country,  which  had 
lost  heart,  and  become  supine  and  almost  hos- 
tile, revived.  The  militia  again  took  the  field. 
Outlying  parties  of  the  British  were  attacked 
and  cut  off,  and  recruits  once  more  began  to 
come  in  to  the  Continental  army.  The  Revolu- 
tion was  saved.  That  the  English  colonies  in 
North  America  would  have  broken  away  from 
the  mother  country  sooner  or  later  cannot  be 
doubted,  but  that  particular  Revolution  of  1776 
would  have  failed  within  a  year,  had  it  not  been 
for  Washington.  It  is  not,  however,  merely  the 
fact  that  he  was  a  great  soldier  and  statesman 
which  we  should  remember.  The  most  memo- 
rable thing  to  us,  and  to  all  men,  is  the  heroic 
spirit  of  the  man,  which  rose  in  those  dreary  De- 
cember days  to  its  greatest  height,  under  condi- 
tions so  adverse  that  they  had  crushed  the  hope 
of  every  one  else.  Let  it  be  remembered,  also, 
that  it  was  not  a  spirit  of  desperation  or  of  ig- 


54        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

norance,  a  reckless  daring  which  did  not  count 
the  cost.  No  one  knew  better  than  Washington 
— fno  one,  indeed,  so  well  —  the  exact  state  of 
affairs ;  for  he,  conspicuously  among  great  men, 
always  looked  facts  fearlessly  in  the  face,  and 
never  deceived  himself.  He  was  under  no  illu- 
sions, and  it  was  this  high  quality  of  mind  as 
much  as  any  other  which  enabled  him  to  win 
victories. 

How  he  really  felt  we  know  from  what  he  wrote 
to  Congress  on  December  20,  when  he  said :  "  It 
may  be  thought  that  I  am  going  a  good  deal  out 
of  the  line  of  my  duty  to  adopt  these  measures  or 
to  advise  thus  freely.  A  character  to  lose,  an  es- 
tate to  forfeit,  the  inestimable  blessing  of  liberty 
at  stake,  and  a  life  devoted,  must  be  my  excuse." 
These  were  the  thoughts  in  his  mind  when  he 
was  planning  this  masterly  campaign.  These 
same  thoughts,  we  may  readily  believe,  were  with 
him  when  his  boat  was  making  its  way  through 
the  ice  of  the  Delaware  on  Christmas  Eve.  It 
was  a  very  solemn  moment,  and  he  was  the  only 
man  in  the  darkness  of  that  night  who  fully  un- 
derstood what  was  at  stake  ;  but  then,  as  always, 
he  was  calm  and  serious,  with  a  high  courage 
which  nothing  could  depress. 

The  familiar  picture  of  a  later  day  depicts 
Washington  crossing  the  Delaware  at  the  head 
of  his  soldiers.      He  is  standing  up  in  the  boat, 


THE   BATTLE    OF    TRENTON  55 

looking  forward  in  the  teeth  of  the  storm.  It 
matters  little  whether  the  work  of  the  painter  is 
in  exact  accordance  with  the  real  scene  or  not. 
The  daring  courage,  the  high  resolve,  the  stern 
look  forward  and  onward,  which  the  artist  strove 
to  show  in  the  great  leader,  are  all  vitally  true. 
For  we  may  be  sure  that  the  man  who  led  that 
well-planned  but  desperate  assault,  surrounded 
by  darker  conditions  than  the  storms  of  nature 
which  gathered  about  his  boat,  and  carrying  with 
him  the  fortunes  of  his  country,  was  at  that  mo- 
ment one  of  the  most  heroic  figures  in  history. 


THE   MARCH    TO   TRENTON. 


BENNINGTON 


We  are  but  warriors  for  the  working-day ; 
Our  gayness  and  our  guilt  are  all  besmirch'd 
With  rainy  marching  in  the  painful  field ; 
There  's  not  a  piece  of  feather  in  our  host 
(Good  argument,  I  hope,  we  shall  not  fly), 
And  time  hath  worn  us  into  slovenry. 
But,  by  the  mass,  our  hearts  are  in  the  trim, 
And  my  poor  soldiers  tell  me,  yet  ere  night 
They  '11  be  in  fresher  robes. 

— Henry  V. 


BENNINGTON 


THE  battle  of  Saratoga  is  included  by  Sir  Ed- 
ward Creasy  among  his  fifteen  decisive  battles 
which  have,  by  their  result,  affected  the  history  of 
the  world.  It  is  true  that  the  American  Revolu- 
tion was  saved  by  Washington  in  the  remarkable 
Princeton  and  Trenton  campaign,  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga, 
in  the  following  autumn,  turned  the  scale  deci- 
sively in  favor  of  the  colonists  by  the  impression 
which  it  made  in  Europe.  It  was  the  destruction 
of  Burgoyne's  army  which  determined  France  to 
aid  the  Americans  against  England.  Hence  came 
the  French  alliance,  the  French  troops,  and,  what 
was  of  far  more  importance,  a  French  fleet,  by 
which  Washington  was  finally  able  to  get  control 
of  the  sea,  and  in  this  way  cut  off  Cornwallis  at 
Yorktown  and  bring  the  Revolution  to  a  successful 
close.  That  which  led,  however,  more  directly 
than  anything  else  to  the  final  surrender  at  Sara- 
toga was  the  fight  at  Bennington,  by  which  Bur- 
goyne's army  was  severely  crippled  and  weakened, 
and  by  which  also,  the  hardy  militia  of  the  North- 


60        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

eastern  States  were  led  to  turn  out  in  large  num- 
bers and  join  the  army  of  Gates. 

The  English  ministry  had  built  great  hopes  upon 
Burgoyne's  expedition,  and  neither  expense  nor 
effort  had  been  spared  to  make  it  successful.  He 
was  amply  furnished  with  money  and  supplies  as 
well  as  with  English  and  German  troops,  the  lat- 
ter of  whom  we're  bought  from  their  wretched  little 
princes  by  the  payment  of  generous  subsidies. 
With  an  admirably  equipped  army  of  over  seven 
thousand  men,  and  accompanied  by  a  large  force 
of  Indian  allies,  Burgoyne  had  started  in  May, 
1777,  from  Canada.  His  plan  was  to  make  his 
way  by  the  lakes  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Hudson, 
and  thence  southward  along  the  river  to  New 
York,  where  he  was  to  unite  with  Sir  William 
Howe  and  the  main  army  ;  in  this  way  cutting  the 
colonies  in  two,  and  separating  New  England  from 
the  rest  of  the  country. 

At  first  all  went  well.  The  Americans  were 
pushed  back  from  their  posts  on  the  lakes,  and  by 
the  end  of  July  Burgoyne  was  at  the  head  waters 
of  the  Hudson.  He  had  already  sent  out  a  force, 
under  St.  Leger,  to  take  possession  of  the  valley 
of  the  Mohawk — an  expedition  which  finally  re- 
sulted in  the  defeat  of  the  British  by  Herkimer, 
and  the  capture  of  Fort  Stanwix.  To  aid  St. 
Leger  by  a  diversion,  and  also  to  capture  certain 
magazines  which  were  reported  to  be  at  Benning- 


BENNINGTON  61 

ton,  Burgoyne  sent  another  expedition  to  the  east- 
ward. This  force  consisted  of  about  five  hundred 
and  fifty  white  troops,  chiefly  Hessians,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  Indians,  all  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Baum.  They  were  within  four  miles  of 
Bennington  on  August  13,  1777,  and  encamped 
on  a  hill  just  within  the  boundaries  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  The  news  of  the  advance  of  Bur- 
goyne had  already  roused  the  people  of  New  York 
and  New  Hampshire,  and  the  legislature  of  the  lat- 
ter State  had  ordered  General  Stark  with  a  brigade 
of  militia  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  enemy  on  the 
western  frontier.  Stark  raised  his  standard  at 
Charlestown  on  the  Connecticut  River,  and  the 
militia  poured  into  his  camp.  Disregarding  Schuy- 
ler's orders  to  join  the  main  American  army,  which 
was  falling  back  before  Burgoyne,  Stark,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  of  the  expedition  against  Bennington, 
marched  at  once  to  meet  Baum.  He  was  within 
a  mile  of  the  British  camp  on  August  14,  and 
vainly  endeavored  to  draw  Baum  into  action.  On 
the  15th  it  rained  heavily,  and  the  British  forces 
occupied  the  time  in  intrenching  themselves 
strongly  upon  the  hill  which  they  held.  Baum 
meantime  had  already  sent  to  Burgoyne  for  rein- 
forcements, and  Burgoyne  had  detached  Colonel 
Breymann  with  over  six  hundred  regular  troops 
to  go  to  Baum's  assistance.  On  the  16th  the 
weather  cleared,  and  Stark,  who  had  been  rein- 


62        HERO   TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

forced  by  militia  from  western  Massachusetts,  de- 
termined to  attack. 

Early  in  the  day  he  sent  men,  under  Nichols 
and  Herrick,  to  get  into  the  rear  of  Baum's  posi- 
tion. The  German  officer,  ignorant  of  the  country 
and  of  the  nature  of  the  warfare  in  which  he  was 
engaged,  noticed  small  bodies  of  men  in  their  shirt- 
sleeves, and  carrying  guns  without  bayonets,  mak- 
ing their  way  to  the  rear  of  his  intrenchments. 
With  singular  stupidity  he  concluded  that  they 
were  Tory  inhabitants  of  the  country  who  were 
coming  to  his  assistance,  and  made  no  attempt  to 
stop  them.  In  this  way  Stark  was  enabled  to  mass 
about  five  hundred  men  in  the  rear  of  the  enemy's 
position.  Distracting  the  attention  of  the  British 
by  a  feint,  Stark  also  moved  about  two  hundred 
men  to  the  right,  and  having  thus  brought  his 
forces  into  position  he  ordered  a  general  assault, 
and  the  Americans  proceeded  to  storm  the  British 
intrenchments  on  every  side.  The  fight  was  a 
very  hot  one,  and  lasted  some  two  hours.  The 
Indians,  at  the  beginning  of  the  action,  slipped 
away  between  the  American  detachments,  but  the 
British  and  German  regulars  stubbornly  stood 
their  ground.  It  is  difficult  to  get  at  the  exact 
numbers  of  the  American  troops,  but  Stark  seems 
to  have  had  between  fifteen  hundred  and  two  thou- 
sand militia.  He  thus  outnumbered  his  enemy 
nearly  three  to  one,   but   his  men  were  merely 


AT    THE    BAYONET'S    POINT. 


BENNINGTON  65 

country  militia,  farmers  of  the  New  England 
States,  very  imperfectly  disciplined,  and  armed 
only  with  muskets  and  fowling-pieces,  without 
bayonets  or  side-arms.  On  the  other  side  Baum 
had  the  most  highly  disciplined  troops  of  England 
and  Germany  under  his  command,  well  armed  and 
equipped,  and  he  was  moreover  strongly  in- 
trenched with  artillery  well  placed  behind  the 
breastworks.  The  advantage  in  the  fight  should 
have  been  clearly  with  Baum  and  his  regulars, 
who  merely  had  to  hold  an  intrenched  hill. 

It  was  not  a  battle  in  which  either  military  strat- 
egy or  a  scientific  management  of  troops  was  dis- 
played. All  that  Stark  did  was  to  place  his  men 
so  that  they  could  attack  the  enemy's  position  on 
every  side,  and  then  the  Americans  went  at  it,  fir- 
ing as  they  pressed  on.  The  British  and  Germans 
stood  their  ground  stubbornly,  while  the  New 
England  farmers  rushed  up  to  within  eight  yards 
of  the  cannon,  and  picked  off  the  men  who  manned 
the  guns.  Stark  himself  was  in  the  midst  of  the 
fray,  fighting  with  his  soldiers,  and  came  out  of 
the  conflict  so  blackened  with  powder  and  smoke 
that  he  could  hardly  be  recognized.  One  desperate 
assault  succeeded  another,  while  the  firing  on  both 
sides  was  so  incessant  as  to  make,  in  Stark's  own 
words,  a  "continuous  roar."  At  the  end  of  two 
hours  the  Americans  finally  swarmed  over  the  in- 
trenchments,  beating  down  the  soldiers  with  their 


66         HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

clubbed  muskets.  Baum  ordered  his  infantry 
with  the  bayonet  and  the  dragoons  with  their 
sabers  to  force  their  way  through,  but  the  Ameri- 
cans repulsed  this  final  charge,  and  Baum  himself 
fell  mortally  wounded.  All  was  then  over,  and 
the  British  forces  surrendered. 

It  was  only  just  in  time,  for  Breymann,  who 
had  taken  thirty  hours  to  march  some  twenty-four 
miles,  came  up  just  after  Baum's  men  had  laid 
down  their  arms.  It  seemed  for  a  moment  as  if  all 
that  had  been  grained  mi^ht  be  lost.  The  Amer- 
icans,  attacked  by  this  fresh  foe,  wavered ;  but 
Stark  rallied  his  line,  and  putting  in  Warner,  with 
one  hundred  and  fifty  Vermont  men  who  had  just 
come  on  the  field,  stopped  Breymann's  advance, 
and  finally  forced  him  to  retreat  with  a  loss  of 
nearly  one  half  his  men.  The  Americans  lost  in 
killed  and  wounded  some  seventy  men,  and  the 
Germans  and  British  about  twice  as  many,  but 
the  Americans  took  about  seven  hundred  prison- 
ers, and  completely  wrecked  the  forces  of  Baum 
and  Breymann. 

The  blow  was  a  severe  one,  and  Burgoyne's 
army  never  recovered  from  it.  Not  only  had  he 
lost  nearly  a  thousand  of  his  best  troops,  besides 
cannon,  arms,  and  munitions  of  war,  but  the  de- 
feat affected  the  spirits  of  his  army  and  destroyed 
his  hold  over  his  Indian  allies,  who  began  to  desert 
in  large  numbers.    Bennington,  in  fact,  was  one  of 


BENNINGTON  67 

the  most  important  fights  of  the  Revolution,  con- 
tributing as  it  did  so  largely  to  the  final  surrender 
of  Burgoyne's  whole  army  at  Saratoga,  and  the 
utter  ruin  of  the  British  invasion  from  the  North. 
It  is  also  interesting  as  an  extremely  gallant  bit  of 
fighting.  As  has  been  said,  there  was  no  strategy 
displayed,  and  there  were  no  military  operations  of 
the  higher  kind.  There  stood  the  enemy  strongly 
intrenched  on  a  hill,  and  Stark,  calling  his  undis- 
ciplined levies  about  him,  went  at  them.  He 
himself  was  a  man  of  the  highest  courage  and  a 
reckless  fighter.  It  was  Stark  who  held  the  rail- 
fence  at  Bunker  Hill,  and  who  led  the  van  when 
Sullivan's  division  poured  into  Trenton  from  the 
river  road.  He  was  admirably  adapted  for  the 
precise  work  which  was  necessary  at  Bennington, 
and  he  and  his  men  fought  well  their  hand-to- 
hand  fight  on  that  hot  August  day,  and  carried 
the  intrenchments  filled  with  regular  troops  and 
defended  by  artillery.  It  was  a  daring  feat  of 
arms,  as  well  as  a  battle  which  had  an  important 
effect  upon  the  course  of  history  and  upon  the 
fate  of  the  British  empire  in  America. 


KING'S    MOUNTAIN 


Our  fortress  is  the  good  greenwood, 

Our  tent  the  cypress  tree  ; 
We  know  the  forest  round  us 

As  seamen  know  the  sea. 
We  know  its  walls  of  thorny  vines, 

Its  glades  of  reedy  grass, 
Its  safe  and  silent  islands 

Within  the  dark  morass. 

— Bryant. 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 


^T^HE  close  of  the  year  1780  was,  in  the  South- 
\_  ern  States,  the  darkest  time  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary struggle.  Cornwallis  had  just  destroyed 
the  army  of  Gates  at  Camden,  and  his  two  for- 
midable lieutenants,  Tarlton  the  light  horseman, 
and  Ferguson  the  skilled  rifleman,  had  destroyed 
or  scattered  all  the  smaller  bands  that  had  been 
fighting  for  the  patriot  cause.  The  red  dragoons 
rode  hither  and  thither,  and  all  through  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina  none  dared  lift  their  heads 
to  oppose  them,  while  North  Carolina  lay  at  the 
feet  of  Cornwallis,  as  he  started  through  it  with 
his  army  to  march  into  Virginia.  There  was  no 
organized  force  against  him,  and  the  cause  of  the 
patriots  seemed  hopeless.  It  was  at  this  hour 
that  the  wild  backwoodsmen  of  the  western  bor- 
der gathered  to  strike  a  blow  for  liberty. 

When  Cornwallis  invaded  North  Carolina  he 
sent  Ferguson  into  the  western  part  of  the  State 
to  crush  out  any  of  the  patriot  forces  that  might 
still  be  lingering  among  the  foot-hills.  Ferguson 
was  a  very  gallant  and  able  officer,  and  a  man  of 


72         HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

much  influence  with  the  people  wherever  he  went, 
so  that  he  was  peculiarly  fitted  for  this  scrambling 
border  warfare.  He  had  under  him  a  battalion 
of  regular  troops  and  several  other  battalions  of 
Tory  militia,  in  all  eleven  or  twelve  hundred  men. 
He  shattered  and  drove  the  small  bands  of  Whigs 
that  were  yet  in  arms,  and  finally  pushed  to  the 
foot  of  the  mountain  wall,  till  he  could  see  in  his 
front  the  high  ranges  of  the  Great  Smokies. 
Here  he  learned  for  the  first  time  that  beyond 
the  mountains  there  lay  a  few  hamlets  of  fron- 
tiersmen, whose  homes  were  on  what  were  then 
called  the  Western  Waters,  that  is,  the  waters 
which  flowed  into  the  Mississippi.  To  these  he 
sent  word  that  if  they  did  not  prove  loyal  to  the 
king,  he  would  cross  their  mountains,  hang  their 
leaders,  and  burn  their  villages. 

Beyond  the  mountains,  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Holston  and  Watauga,  dwelt  men  who  were  stout 
of  heart  and  mighty  in  battle,  and  when  they 
heard  the  threats  of  Ferguson  they  burned  with  a 
sullen  flame  of  anger.  Hitherto  the  foes  against 
whom  they  had  warred  had  been  not  the  British, 
but  the  Indian  allies  of  the  British,  Creek,  and 
Cherokee,  and  Shawnee.  Now  that  the  army 
of  the  king  had  come  to  their  thresholds,  they 
turned  to  meet  it  as  fiercely  as  they  had  met  his 
Indian  allies.  Among  the  backwoodsmen  of  this 
region  there  were  at  that  time  three  men  of  special 


KING'S   MOUNTAIN  73 

note  :  Sevier,  who  afterward  became  governor  of 
Tennessee  ;  Shelby,  who  afterward  became  gov- 
ernor of  Kentucky  ;  and  Campbell,  the  Virginian, 
who  died  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Sevier  had 
given  a  great  barbecue,  where  oxen  and  deer 
were  roasted  whole,  while  horse-races  were  run, 
and  the  backwoodsmen  tried  their  skill  as  marks- 
men and  wrestlers.  In  the  midst  of  the  feasting 
Shelby  appeared,  hot  with  hard  riding,  to  tell  of 
the  approach  of  Ferguson  and  the  British.  Im- 
mediately the  feasting  was  stopped,  and  the 
feasters  made  ready  for  war.  Sevier  and  Shelby 
sent  word  to  Campbell  to  rouse  the  men  of  his 
own  district  and  come  without  delay,  and  they 
sent  messengers  to  and  fro  in  their  own  neigh- 
borhood  to  summon  the  settlers  from  their  log 
huts  on  the  stump-dotted  clearings  and  the  hunters 
from  their  smoky  cabins  in  the  deep  woods. 

The  meeting-place  was  at  the  Sycamore  Shoals. 
On  the  appointed  day  the  backwoodsmen  gath- 
ered sixteen  hundred  strong,  each  man  carrying 
a  long  rifle,  and  mounted  on  a  tough,  shaggy 
horse.  They  were  a  wild  and  fierce  people,  ac- 
customed to  the  chase  and  to  warfare  with  the 
Indians.  Their  hunting-shirts  of  buckskin  or 
homespun  were  girded  in  by  bead-worked  belts, 
and  the  trappings  of  their  horses  were  stained 
red  and  yellow.  At  the  gathering  there  was  a 
black-frocked  Presbyterian  preacher,  and  before 


74        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

they  started  he  addressed  the  tall  riflemen  in  words 
of  burning  zeal,  urging  them  to  stand  stoutly  in 
the  battle,  and  to  smite  with  the  sword  of  the 
Lord  and  of  Gideon.  Then  the  army  started, 
the  backwoods  colonels  riding  in  front. 

Two  or  three  days  later,  word  was  brought  to 
Ferguson  that  the  Back-water  men  had  come 
over  the  mountains  ;  that  the  Indian-fighters  of 
the  frontier,  leaving  unguarded  their  homes  on 
the  Western  Waters,  had  crossed  by  wooded  and 
precipitous  defiles  to  the  help  of  the  beaten  men 
of  the  plains.  Ferguson  at  once  fell  back,  send- 
ing out  messengers  for  help.  When  he  came  to 
King's  Mountain,  a  wooded,  hog-back  hill  on  the 
border  line  between  North  and  South  Carolina, 
he  camped  on  its  top,  deeming  that  there  he  was 
safe,  for  he  supposed  that  before  the  backwoods- 
men could  come  near  enough  to  attack  him  help 
would  reach  him.  But  the  backwoods  leaders 
felt  as  keenly  as  he  the  need  of  haste,  and  choos- 
ing out  nine  hundred  picked  men,  the  best  war- 
riors of  their  force,  and  the  best  mounted  and 
armed,  they  made  a  long  forced  march  to  assail 
Ferguson  before  help  could  come  to  him.  All 
night  long  they  rode  the  dim  forest  trails  and 
splashed  across  the  fords  of  the  rushing  rivers. 
All  the  next  day,  October  16,  they  rode,  until  in 
mid-afternoon,  just  as  a  heavy  shower  cleared 
away,   they  came  in   sight  of  King's  Mountain. 


W      I 


KING'S   MOUNTAIN  77 

The  little  armies  were  about  equal  in  numbers. 
Ferguson's  regulars  were  armed  with  the  bayonet, 
and  so  were  some  of  his  Tory  militia,  whereas 
the  Americans  had  not  a  bayonet  among  them  ; 
but  they  were  picked  men,  confident  in  their  skill 
as  riflemen,  and  they  were  so  sure  of  victory  that 
their  aim  was  not  only  to  defeat  the  British  but 
to  capture  their  whole  force.  The  backwoods 
colonels,  counseling  together  as  they  rode  at  the 
head  of  the  column,  decided  to  surround  the  moun- 
tain and  assail  it  on  all  sides.  Accordingly  the 
bands  of  frontiersmen  split  one  from  the  other, 
and  soon  circled  the  craggy  hill  where  Ferguson's 
forces  were  encamped.  They  left  their  horses  in 
the  rear  and  immediately  began  the  battle,  swarm- 
ing forward  on  foot,  their  commanders  leading 
the  attack. 

The  march  had  been  so  quick  and  the  attack 
so  sudden  that  Ferguson  had  barely  time  to  mar- 
shal his  men  before  the  assault  was  made.  Most 
of  his  militia  he  scattered  around  the  top  of  the 
hill  to  fire  down  at  the  Americans  as  they  came 
up,  while  with  his  regulars  and  with  a  few  picked 
militia  he  charged  with  the  bayonet  in  person, 
first  down  one  side  of  the  mountain  and  then 
down  the  other.  Sevier,  Shelby,  Campbell,  and 
the  other  colonels  of  the  frontiersmen,  led  each 
his  force  of  riflemen  straight  toward  the  summit. 
Each  body  in  turn  when  charged  by  the  regulars 


78         HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

was  forced  to  give  way,  for  there  were  no  bayonets 
wherewith  to  meet  the  foe ;  but  the  backwoods- 
man retreated  only  so  long"  as  the  charge  lasted, 
and  the  minute  that  it  stopped  they  stopped  too, 
and  came  back  ever  closer  to  the  ridge  and  ever 
with  a  deadlier  fire.  Ferguson,  blowing  a  silver 
whistle  as  a  signal  to  his  men,  led  these  charges, 
sword  in  hand,  on  horseback.  At  last,  just  as  he 
was  once  again  rallying  his  men,  the  riflemen  of 
Sevier  and  Shelby  crowned  the  top  of  the  ridge. 
The  o-allant  British  commander  became  a  fair 
target  for  the  backwoodsmen,  and  as  for  the  last 
time  he  led  his  men  against  them,  seven  bullets 
entered  his  body  and  he  fell  dead.  With  his  fall 
resistance  ceased.  The  regulars  and  Tories  hud- 
dled together  in  a  confused  mass,  while  the  exul- 
tant Americans  rushed  forward.  A  flag"  of  truce 
was  hoisted,  and  all  the  British  who  were  not 
dead  surrendered. 

The  victory  was  complete,  and  the  backwoods- 
men at  once  started  to  return  to  their  loo"  hamlets 
and  rough,  lonely  farms.  They  could  not  stay, 
for  they  dared  not  leave  their  homes  at  the  mercy 
of  the  Indians.  They  had  rendered  a  great  ser- 
vice ;  for  Cornwallis,  when  he  heard  of  the  disaster 
to  his  trusted  lieutenant,  abandoned  his  march 
northward,  and  retired  to  South  Carolina.  When 
he  again  resumed  the  offensive,  he  found  his  path 
barred  by  stubborn  General  Greene  and  his  troops 
of  the  Continental  line. 


THE   STORMING   OF   STONY   POINT 


In  their  ragged  regimentals 
Stood  the  old  Continentals, 

Yielding  not, 
When  the  grenadiers  were  lunging, 
And  like  hail  fell  the  plunging 
Cannon-shot ; 
When  the  files 
Of  the  isles 
From  the  smoky  night  encampment  bore  the  banner  of  the  ram- 
pant Unicorn, 
And  grummer,  grummer,  grummer,  rolled  the  roll  of  the  drum- 
mer, 

Through  the  morn  ! 

Then  with  eyes  to  the  front  all, 
And  with  guns  horizontal, 

Stood  our  sires ; 
And  the  balls  whistled  deadly, 
And  in  streams  flashing  redly 
Blazed  the  fires ; 
As  the  roar 
On  the  shore 
Swept  the  strong  battle-breakers  o'er  the  green-sodded  acres 

Of  the  plain ; 
And  louder,  louder,  louder  cracked  the  black  gunpowder, 
Cracked  amain  ! 

— Guy  Humphrey  Mc Master. 


THE  STORMING  OF  STONY  POINT 

ONE  of  the  heroic  figures  of  the  Revolution 
was  Anthony  Wayne,  Major- General  of 
the  Continental  line.  With  the  exception  of 
Washington,  and  perhaps  Greene,  he  was  the 
best  general  the  Americans  developed  in  the  con- 
test ;  and  without  exception  he  showed  himself  to 
be  the  hardest  fighter  produced  on  either  side. 
He  belongs,  as  regards  this  latter  characteristic, 
with  the  men  like  Winfield  Scott,  Phil  Kearney, 
Hancock,  and  Forrest,  who  reveled  in  the  danger 
and  the  actual  shock  of  arms.  Indeed,  his  eager 
love  of  battle,  and  splendid  disregard  of  peril,  have 
made  many  writers  forget  his  really  great  quali- 
ties as  a  general.  Soldiers  are  always  prompt  to 
recognize  the  prime  virtue  of  physical  courage, 
and  Wayne's  followers  christened  their  daring 
commander  "  Mad  Anthony,"  in  loving  allusion 
to  his  reckless  bravery.  It  is  perfectly  true  that 
Wayne  had  this  courage,  and  that  he  was  a  born 
fiofhter ;  otherwise,  he  never  would  have  been  a 
great  commander.  A  man  who  lacks  the  fond- 
ness for  fighting,  the  eager  desire  to  punish  his 


82        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

adversary,  and  the  willingness  to  suffer  punish- 
ment in  return,  may  be  a  great  organizer,  like 
McClellan,  but  can  never  become  a  great  general 
or  win  great  victories.  There  are,  however,  plenty 
of  men  who,  though  they  possess  these  fine  manly 
traits,  yet  lack  the  head  to  command  an  army ; 
but  Wayne  had  not  only  the  heart  and  the  hand 
but  the  head  likewise.  No  man  could  dare  as 
greatly  as  he  did  without  incurring  the  risk  of  an 
occasional  check ;  but  he  was  an  able  and  bold 
tactician,  a  vigilant  and  cautious  leader,  well  fitted 
to  bear  the  terrible  burden  of  responsibility  which 
rests  upon  a  commander-in-chief. 

Of  course,  at  times  he  had  some  rather  severe 
lessons.  Quite  early  in  his  career,  just  after  the 
battle  of  the  Brandywine,  when  he  was  set  to 
watch  the  enemy,  he  was  surprised  at  night  by 
the  British  general  Grey,  a  redoubtable  fighter, 
who  attacked  him  with  the  bayonet,  killed  a  num- 
ber of  his  men,  and  forced  him  to  fall  back  some 
distance  from  the  field  of  action.  This  mortifying 
experience  had  no  effect  whatever  on  Wayne's 
courage  or  self-reliance,  but  it  did  give  him  a 
valuable  lesson  in  caution.  He  showed  what  he 
had  learned  by  the  skill  with  which,  many  years 
later,  he  conducted  the  famous  campaign  in  which 
he  overthrew  the  Northwestern  Indians  at  the 
Fight  of  the  Fallen  Timbers. 

Wayne's  favorite  weapon  was  the  bayonet,  and, 


THE    STORMING    OF    STONY    POINT  83 

like  Scott,  he  taught  his  troops,  until  they  were 
able  in  the  shock  of  hand-to-hand  conflict  to 
overthrow  the  renowned  British  infantry,  who 
have  always  justly  prided  themselves  on  their 
prowess  with  cold  steel.  At  the  battle  of  Ger- 
mantown  it  was  Wayne's  troops  who,  falling  on 
with  the  bayonet,  drove  the  Hessians  and  the 
British  light  infantry,  and  only  retreated  under 
orders  when  the  attack  had  failed  elsewhere.  At 
Monmouth  it  was  Wayne  and  his  Continentals 
who  first  checked  the  British  advance  by  repul- 
sing the  bayonet  charge  of  the  guards  and  gren- 
adiers. 

Washington,  a  true  leader  of  men,  was  prompt 
to  recognize  in  Wayne  a  soldier  to  whom  could 
be  intrusted  any  especially  difficult  enterprise 
which  called  for  the  exercise  alike  of  intelligence 
and  of  cool  daring.  In  the  summer  of  1780  he 
was  very  anxious  to  capture  the  British  fort  at 
Stony  Point,  which  commanded  the  Hudson.  It 
was  impracticable  to  attack  it  by  regular  siege 
while  the  British  frigates  lay  in  the  river,  and  the 
defenses  were  so  strong  that  open  assault  by  day- 
light was  equally  out  of  the  question.  Accord- 
ingly Washington  suggested  to  Wayne  that  he 
try  a  night  attack.  Wayne  eagerly  caught  at  the 
idea.  It  was  exactly  the  kind  of  enterprise  in 
which  he  delighted.  The  fort  was  on  a  rocky 
promontory,  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  water, 


84        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

and  on  the  fourth  by  a  neck  of  land,  which  was 
for  the  most  part  mere  morass.  It  was  across 
this  neck  of  land  that  any  attacking  column  had 
to  move.  The  garrison  was  six  hundred  strong. 
To  deliver  the  assault  Wayne  took  nine  hundred 
men. 

The  American  army  was  camped  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Stony  Point.  One  July  afternoon 
Wayne  started,  and  led  his  troops  in  single  file 
along  the  narrow  rocky  roads,  reaching  the  hills 
on  the  mainland  near  the  fort  after  nightfall.  He 
divided  his  force  into  two  columns,  to  advance  one 
along  each  side  of  the  neck,  detaching  two  com- 
panies of  North  Carolina  troops  to  move  in 
between  the  two  columns  and  make  a  false  at- 
tack. The  rest  of  the  force  consisted  of  New 
Englanders,  Pennsylvanians,  and  Virginians. 
Each  attacking  column  was  divided  into  three 
parts,  a  forlorn  hope  of  twenty  men  leading, 
which  was  followed  by  an  advance  guard  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty,  and  then  by  the  main 
body.  At  the  time  commanding  officers  still 
carried  spontoons,  and  other  old-time  weapons, 
and  Wayne,  who  himself  led  the  right  column, 
directed  its  movements  spear  in  hand. 

It  was  nearly  midnight  when  the  Americans 
began  to  press  along  the  causeways  toward  the 
fort.  Before  they  were  near  the  walls  they  were 
discovered,  and  the  British  opened  a  heavy  fire  of 


h ', 


THE    STORMING    OF    STONY    POINT  87 

great  guns  and  musketry,  to  which  the  Caro- 
linians, who  were  advancing  between  the  two 
columns,  responded  in  their  turn,  according  to 
orders;  but  the  men  in  the  columns  were  forbidden 
to  fire.  Wayne  had  warned  them  that  their  work 
must  be  done  with  the  bayonet,  and  their  muskets 
were  not  even  loaded.  Moreover,  so  strict  was 
the  discipline  that  no  one  was  allowed  to  leave  the 
ranks,  and  when  one  of  the  men  did  so  an  officer 
promptly  ran  him  through  the  body. 

No  sooner  had  the  British  opened  fire  than  the 
charging  columns  broke  into  a  run,  and  in  a  mo- 
ment the  forlorn  hopes  plunged  into  the  abattis 
of  fallen  timber  which  the  British  had  constructed 
just  without  the  walls.  On  the  left,  the  forlorn 
hope  was  very  roughly  handled,  no  less  than  sev- 
enteen of  the  twenty  men  being  either  killed  or 
wounded,  but  as  the  columns  came  up  both  burst 
through  the  down  timber  and  swarmed  up  the 
long,  sloping  embankments  of  the  fort.  The  Brit- 
ish fought  well,  cheering  loudly  as  their  volleys 
rang,  but  the  Americans  would  not  be  denied,  and 
pushed  silently  on  to  end  the  contest  with  the 
bayonet.  A  bullet  struck  Wayne  in  the  head.  He 
fell,  but  struggled  to  his  feet  and  forward,  two  of 
his  officers  supporting  him.  A  rumor  went  among 
the  men  that  he  was  dead,  but  it  only  impelled 
them  to  charge  home  more  fiercely  than  ever. 

With  a  rush  the  troops  swept  to  the  top  of  the 


88        HERO    TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

wall.  A  fierce  but  short  fight  followed  in  the  in- 
tense darkness,  which  was  lit  only  by  the  flashes 
from  the  British  muskets.  The  Americans  did  not 
fire,  trusting  solely  to  the  bayonet.  The  two  col- 
umns had  kept  almost  equal  pace,  and  they  swept 
into  the  fort  from  opposite  sides  at  the  same  mo- 
ment. The  three  men  who  first  got  over  the  walls 
were  all  wounded,  but  one  of  them  hauled  down 
the  British  fla£.  The  Americans  had  the  advan- 
tage  which  always  comes  from  delivering  an  at- 
tack that  is  thrust  home.  Their  muskets  were 
unloaded  and  they  could  not  hesitate  ;  so,  running 
boldly  into  close  quarters,  they  fought  hand  to 
hand  with  their  foes  and  speedily  overthrew  them. 
For  a  moment  the  bayonets  flashed  and  played ; 
then  the  British  lines  broke  as  their  assailants 
thronged  against  them,  and  the  struesfle  was  over. 
The  Americans  had  lost  a  hundred  in  killed  and 
wounded.  Of  the  British  sixty-three  had  been 
slain  and  very  many  wounded,  every  one  of  the 
dead  or  disabled  having  suffered  from  the  bayonet. 
A  curious  coincidence  was  that  the  number  of  the 
dead  happened  to  be  exactly  equal  to  the  number 
of  Wayne's  men  who  had  been  killed  in  the  night 
attack  by  the  English  general,  Grey. 

There  was  great  rejoicing  among  the  Americans 
over  the  successful  issue  of  the  attack.  Wayne 
speedily  recovered  from  his  wound,  and  in  the  joy 
of  his  victory  it  weighed  but  slightly.      He  had 


THE   STORMING   OF    STONY    POINT  89 

performed  a  most  notable  feat.  No  night  attack 
of  the  kind  was  ever  delivered  with  greater  bold- 
ness, skill,  and  success.  When  the  Revolutionary 
War  broke  out  the  American  armies  were  com- 
posed merely  of  armed  yeomen,  stalwart  men,  of 
good  courage,  and  fairly  proficient  in  the  use  of 
their  weapons,  but  entirely  without  the  training 
which  alone  could  enable  them  to  withstand  the 
attack  of  the  British  regulars  in  the  open,  or  to 
deliver  an  attack  themselves.  Washington's  vic- 
tory at  Trenton  was  the  first  encounter  which 
showed  that  the  Americans  were  to  be  feared 
when  they  took  the  offensive.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  battle  of  Trenton,  and  perhaps  of 
Greene's  fight  at  Eutaw  Springs,  Wayne's  feat 
was  the  most  successful  illustration  of  daring  and 
victorious  attack  by  an  American  army  that  oc- 
curred during  the  war;  and,  unlike  Greene,  who 
was  only  able  to  fight  a  drawn  battle,  Wayne's 
triumph  was  complete.  At  Monmouth  he  had 
shown,  as  he  afterward  showed  against  Corn- 
wallis,  that  his  troops  could  meet  the  renowned 
British  regulars  on  even  terms  in  the  open.  At 
Stony  Point  he  showed  that  he  could  lead  them 
to  a  triumphant  assault  with  the  bayonet  against 
regulars  who  held  a  fortified  place  of  strength.  No 
American  commander  has  ever  displayed  greater 
energy  and  daring,  a  more  resolute  courage,  or 
readier  resource,  than  the  chief  of  the  hard-fighting 
Revolutionary  generals,  Mad  Anthony  Wayne. 


GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS 


GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS.     PARIS.     AUGUST  10,  1792. 

Justum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 
Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  vultus  instantis  tyranni 

Mente  quatit  solida,  neque  Auster 
Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae, 
Nee  fulminantis  magna  manus  Jovis : 
Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae. 

—Hor.,  Lib.  III.  Carm.  III. 


GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS 

THE  ioth  of  August,  1792,  was  one  of  the 
most  memorable  days  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. It  was  the  day  on  which  the  French  mon- 
archy received  its  death-blow,  and  was  accompa- 
nied by  fighting-  and  bloodshed  which  filled  Paris 
with  terror.  In  the  morning  before  daybreak  the 
tocsin  had  sounded,  and  not  long  after  the  mob 
of  Paris,  headed  by  the  Marseillais,  "  Six  hun- 
dred men  not  afraid  to  die,"  who  had  been  sum- 
moned there  by  Barbaroux,  were  marching  upon 
the  Tuileries.  The  king,  or  rather  the  queen, 
had  at  last  determined  to  make  a  stand  and  to 
defend  the  throne.  The  Swiss  Guards  were  there 
at  the  palace,  well  posted  to  protect  the  inner 
court ;  and  there,  too,  were  the  National  Guards, 
who  were  expected  to  uphold  the  government 
and  guard  the  king.  The  tide  of  people  poured 
on  through  the  streets,  gathering  strength  as  they 
went — the  Marseillais,  the  armed  bands,  the  Sec- 
tions, and  a  vast  floating  mob.  The  crowd  drew 
nearer  and  nearer,  but  the  squadrons  of  the  Na- 
tional Guards,  who  were  to  check  the  advance,  did 

93 


94        HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

not  stir.  It  is  not  apparent,  indeed,  that  they  made 
any  resistance,  and  the  king  and  his  family  at 
eight  o'clock  lost  heart  and  deserted  the  Tuileries, 
to  take  refuge  with  the  National  Convention. 
The  multitude  then  passed  into  the  court  of  the 
Carrousel,  unchecked  by  the  National  Guards, 
and  were  face  to  face  with  the  Swiss.  Deserted 
by  their  king,  the  Swiss  knew  not  how  to  act,  but 
still  stood  their  ground.  There  was  some  parley- 
ing, and  at  last  the  Marseillais  fired  a  cannon. 
Then  the  Swiss  fired.  They  were  disciplined 
troops,  and  their  fire  was  effective.  There  was  a 
heavy  slaughter  and  the  mob  recoiled,  leaving 
their  cannon,  which  the  Swiss  seized.  The  Revo- 
lutionists, however,  returned  to  the  charge,  and 
the  fight  raged  on  both  sides,  the  Swiss  holding 
their  ground  firmly. 

Suddenly,  from  the  legislative  hall,  came  an 
order  from  the  king  to  the  Swiss  to  cease  firing. 
It  was  their  death-warrant.  Paralyzed  by  the  order, 
they  knew  not  what  to  do.  The  mob  poured  in, 
and  most  of  the  gallant  Swiss  were  slaughtered 
where  they  stood.  Others  escaped  from  the  Tuile- 
ries only  to  meet  their  death  in  the  street.  The 
palace  was  sacked  and  the  raging  mob  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  city.  No  man's  life  was  safe,  least 
of  all  those  who  were  known  to  be  friends  of  the 
king,  who  were  nobles,  or  who  had  any  connec- 
tion with  the  court.    Some  of  these  people  whose 


GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS  95 

lives  were  thus  in  peril  at  the  hands  of  the  blood- 
stained and  furious  mob  had  been  the  allies  of  the 
United  States,  and  had  fought  under  Washington 
in  the  war  for  American  independence.  In  their 
aneuish  and  distress  their  thoughts  recurred  to 
the  country  which  they  had  served  in  its  hour  of 
trial,  three  thousand  miles  away.  They  sought 
the  legation  of  the  United  States  and  turned  to 
the  American  minister  for  protection. 

Such  an  exercise  of  humanity  at  that  moment 
was  not  a  duty  that  any  man  craved.  In  those  ter- 
rible days  in  Paris,  the  representatives  of  foreign 
governments  were  hardly  safer  than  any  one  else. 
Many  of  the  ambassadors  and  ministers  had  al- 
ready left  the  country,  and  others  were  even  then 
abandoning  their  posts,  which  it  seemed  impossi- 
ble to  hold  at  such  a  time.  But  the  American 
minister  stood  his  ground.  Gouverneur  Morris 
was  not  a  man  to  shrink  from  what  he  knew  to 
be  his  duty.  He  had  been  a  leading  patriot  in 
our  revolution  ;  he  had  served  in  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  with  Robert  Morris  in  the  difficult 
work  of  the  Treasury,  when  all  our  resources 
seemed  to  be  at  their  lowest  ebb.  In  1 788  he  had 
gone  abroad  on  private  business,  and  had  been 
much  in  Paris,  where  he  had  witnessed  the  begin- 
ning of  the  French  Revolution  and  had  been  con- 
sulted by  men  on  both  sides.  In  1790,  by  Wash- 
ington's direction,  he  had  gone  to  London  and 


96        HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

had  consulted  the  ministry  there  as  to  whether 
they  would  receive  an  American  minister.  Thence 
he  had  returned  to  Paris,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  1792  Washington  appointed  him  minister  of 
the   United  States  to  France. 

As  an  American,  Morris's  sympathies  had  run 
strongly  in  favor  of  the  movement  to  relieve 
France  from  the  despotism  under  which  she  was 
sinking,  and  to  give  her  a  better  and  more  liberal 
government.  But,  as  the  Revolution  progressed, 
he  became  outraged  and  disgusted  by  the  methods 
employed.  He  felt  a  profound  contempt  for  both 
sides.  The  inability  of  those  who  were  conduct- 
ing the  Revolution  to  carry  out  intelligent  plans 
or  maintain  order,  and  the  feebleness  of  the  king 
and  his  advisers,  were  alike  odious  to  the  man 
with  American  conceptions  of  ordered  liberty. 
He  was  especially  revolted  by  the  bloodshed  and 
cruelty,  constantly  gathering  in  strength,  which 
were  displayed  by  the  revolutionists,  and  he  had 
gone  to  the  very  verge  of  diplomatic  propriety  in 
advising  the  ministers  of  the  king  in  regard  to 
the  policies  to  be  pursued,  and,  as  he  foresaw  what 
was  coming,  in  urging  the  king  himself  to  leave 
France.  All  his  efforts  and  all  his  advice,  like 
those  of  other  intelligent  men  who  kept  their 
heads  during  the  whirl  of  the  Revolution,  were 
alike  vain. 

On  August  10  the  o-atherinof  storm  broke  with 


GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS  97 

full  force,  and  the  populace  rose  in  arms  to  sweep 
away  the  tottering  throne.  Then  it  was  that 
these  people,  fleeing  for  their  lives,  came  to  the 
representative  of  the  country  for  which  many  of 
them  had  fought,  and  on  both  public  and  private 
grounds  besought  the  protection  of  the  Ameri- 
can minister.  Let  me  tell  what  happened  in  the 
words  of  an  eye-witness,  an  American  gentleman 
who  was  in  Paris  at  that  time,  and  who  published 
the  following  account  of  his  experiences  : 

On  the  ever  memorable  10th  of  August,  after  viewing  the 
destruction  of  the  Royal  Swiss  Guards  and  the  dispersion  of 
the  Paris  militia  by  a  band  of  foreign  and  native  incendiaries, 
the  writer  thought  it  his  duty  to  visit  the  Minister,  who  had 
not  been  out  of  his  hotel  since  the  insurrection  began,  and,  as 
was  to  be  expected,  would  be  anxious  to  learn  what  was  pass- 
ing without  doors.  He  was  surrounded  by  the  old  Count 
d'Estaing,  and  about  a  dozen  other  persons  of  distinction,  of 
different  sexes,  who  had,  from  their  connection  with  the  United 
States,  been  his  most  intimate  acquaintances  at  Paris,  and  who 
had  taken  refuge  with  him  for  protection  from  the  bloodhounds 
which,  in  the  forms  of  men  and  women,  were  prowling  in  the 
streets  at  the  time.  All  was  silence  here,  except  that  silence 
was  occasionally  interrupted  by  the  crying  of  the  women  and 
children.  As  I  retired,  the  Minister  took  me  aside,  and  ob- 
served :  "  I  have  no  doubt,  sir,  but  there  are  persons  on  the 
watch  who  would  find .  fault  with  my  conduct  as  Minister  in 
receiving  and  protecting  these  people,  but  I  call  on  you  to 
witness  the  declaration  which  I  now  make,  and  that  is  that  they 
were  not  invited  to  my  house,  but  came  of  their  own  accord. 
Whether  my  house  will  be  a  protection  to  them  or  to  me,  God 
only  knows,  but  I  will  not  turn  them  out  of  it,  let  what  will 
happen  to  me  "  ;  to  which  he  added,  "  You  see,  sir,  they  are  all 
7 


98        HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

persons  to  whom  our  country  is  more  or  less  indebted,  and  it 
would  be  inhuman  to  force  them  into  the  hands  of  the  assas- 
sins, had  they  no  such  claim  upon  me." 

Nothing  can  be  added  to  this  simple  account, 
and  no  American  can  read  it  or  repeat  the  words 
of  Mr.  Morris  without  feeling  even  now,  a  hun- 
dred years  after  the  event,  a  glow  of  pride  that 
such  words  were  uttered  at  such  a  time  by  the 
man  who  represented  the  United  States. 

After  August  10,  when  matters  in  Paris  became 
still  worse,  Mr.  Morris  still  stayed  at  his  post.  Let 
me  give,  in  his  own  words,  what  he  did  and  his 
reasons  for  it : 

The  different  ambassadors  and  ministers  are  all  taking  their 
flight,  and  if  I  stay  I  shall  be  alone.  I  mean,  however,  to  stay, 
unless  circumstances  should  command  me  away,  because,  in 
the  admitted  case  that  my  letters  of  credence  are  to  the  mon- 
archy, and  not  to  the  Republic  of  France,  it  becomes  a  matter 
of  indifference  whether  I  remain  in  this  country  or  go  to  Eng- 
land during  the  time  which  may  be  needful  to  obtain  your 
orders,  or  to  produce  a  settlement  of  affairs  here.  Going  hence, 
however,  would  look  like  taking  part  against  the  late  Revolu- 
tion, and  I  am  not  only  unauthorized  in  this  respect,  but  I  am 
bound  to  suppose  that  if  the  great  majority  of  the  nation  adhere 
to  the  new  form,  the  United  States  will  approve  thereof;  be- 
cause, in  the  first  place,  we  have  no  right  to  prescribe  to  this 
country  the  government  they  shall  adopt,  and  next,  because 
the  basis  of  our  own  Constitution  is  the  indefeasible  right  of  the 
people  to  establish  it. 

Among  those  who  are  leaving  Paris  is  the  Venetian  ambas- 
sador. He  was  furnished  with  passports  from  the  Office  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  but  he  was,  nevertheless,  stopped  at  the  bar- 


GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS 


99 


rier,  was  conducted  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  was  there  questioned 
for  hours,  and  his  carriages  examined  and  searched.  This 
violation  of  the  rights  of  ambassadors  could  not  fail,  as  you  may 
suppose,  to  make  an  impression.  It  has  been  broadly  hinted 
to  me  that  the  honor  of  my  country  and  my  own  require  that 
I  should  go  away.  But  I  am  of  a  different  opinion,  and  rather 
think  that  those  who  give  such  hints  are  somewhat  influenced 
by  fear.  It  is  true  that  the  position  is  not  without  danger,  but 
I  presume  that  when  the  President  did  me  the  honor  of  naming 
me  to  this  embassy,  it  was  not  for  my  personal  pleasure  or 
safety,  but  to  promote  the  interests  of  my  country.  These, 
therefore,  I  shall  continue  to  pursue  to  the  best  of  my  judg- 
ment, and  as  to  consequences,  they  are  in  the  hand  of  God. 

He  remained  there  until  his  successor  arrived. 
When  all  others  fled,  he  was  faithful,  and  such 
conduct  should  never  be  forgotten.  Mr.  Morris 
not  only  risked  his  life,  but  he  took  a  heavy  re- 
sponsibility, and  laid  himself  open  to  severe  attack 
for  having  protected  defenseless  people  against 
the  assaults  of  the  mob.  But  his  courageous  hu- 
manity is  something  which  should  ever  be  remem- 
bered, and  ought  always  to  be  characteristic  of 
the  men  who  represent  the  United  States  in 
foreign  countries.  When  we  recall  the  French 
Revolution,  it  is  cheering  to  think  of  that  fearless 
figure  of  the  American  minister,  standing  firm  and 
calm  in  the  midst  of  those  awful  scenes,  with 
sacked  palaces,  slaughtered  soldiers,  and  a  blood- 
stained mob  about  him,  regardless  of  danger  to 
himself,  determined  to  do  his  duty  to  his  country, 
and  to  those  to  whom  his  country  was  indebted. 


THE    BURNING   OF   THE 
"PHILADELPHIA" 


And  say  besides,  that  in  Aleppo  once, 
Where  a  malignant  and  a  turban'd  Turk 
Beat  a  Venetian  and  traduced  the  state, 
I  took  by  the  throat  the  circumcised  dog 
And  smote  him,  thus. 

—  Othello. 


THE    BURNING   OF   THE 
"PHILADELPHIA" 


IT  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  there  ever  was  a 
time  when  the  United  States  paid  a  money 
tribute  to  anybody.  It  is  even  more  difficult  to 
imagine  the  United  States  paying  blackmail  to  a 
set  of  small  piratical  tribes  on  the  coast  of  Africa. 
Yet  this  is  precisely  what  we  once  did  with  the 
Barbary  powers,  as  they  were  called — the  States  of 
Morocco,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  and  Algiers,  lying  along 
the  northern  coast  of  Africa.  The  only  excuse  to 
be  made  for  such  action  was  that  we  merely  fol- 
lowed the  example  of  Christendom.  The  civilized 
people  of  the  world  were  then  in  the  habit  of  pay- 
ing sums  of  money  to  these  miserable  pirates,  in 
order  to  secure  immunity  for  their  merchant  ves- 
sels in  the  Mediterranean.  For  this  purpose  Con- 
gress appropriated  money,  and  treaties  were  made 
by  the  President  and  ratified  by  the  Senate.  On 
one  occasion,  at  least,  Congress  actually  revoked 
the  authorization  of  some  new  ships  for  the  navy, 
and  appropriated  more  money  than  was  required 


104       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

to  build  the  men-of-war  in  order  to  buy  off  the 
Barbary  powers.  The  fund  for  this  disgraceful  pur- 
pose was  known  as  the  "  Mediterranean  fund," 
and  was  intrusted  to  the  Secretary  of  State  to 
be  disbursed  by  him  in  his  discretion.  After  we 
had  our  brush  with  France,  however,  in  1 798,  and 
after  Truxtun's  brilliant  victory  over  the  French 
frigate  Ulnsurgente  in  the  following  year,  it  oc- 
curred to  our  government  that  perhaps  there  was 
a  more  direct  as  well  as  a  more  manly  way  of 
dealing  with  the  Barbary  pirates  than  by  feebly 
paying  them  tribute,  and  in  1801  a  small  squad- 
ron, under  Commodore  Dale,  proceeded  to  the 
Mediterranean. 

At  the  same  time  events  occurred  which  showed 
strikingly  the  absurdity  as  well  as  the  weakness  of 
this  policy  of  paying  blackmail  to  pirates.  The 
Bashaw  of  Tripoli,  complaining  that  we  had  given 
more  money  to  some  of  the  Algerian  ministers 
than  we  had  to  him,  and  also  that  we  had  presented 
Algiers  with  a  frigate,  declared  war  upon  us,  and 
cut  down  the  flag-staff  in  front  of  the  residence  of 
the  American  consul.  At  the  same  time,  and  for  the 
same  reason,  Morocco  and  Tunis  began  to  grumble 
at  the  treatment  which  they  had  received.  The  fact 
was  that,  with  nations  as  with  individuals,  when 
the  payment  of  blackmail  is  once  begun  there  is  no 
end  to  it.  The  appearance,  however,  of  our  little 
squadron  in  the  Mediterranean  showed  at  once  the 


THE   BURNING    OF    THE    "PHILADELPHIA"      105 

superiority  of  a  policy  of  force  over  one  of  cow- 
ardly submission.  Morocco  and  Tunis  immedi- 
ately stopped  their  grumbling  and  came  to  terms 
with  the  United  States,  and  this  left  us  free  to  deal 
with  Tripoli. 

Commodore  Dale  had  sailed  before  the  decla- 
ration of  war  by  Tripoli  was  known,  and  he  was 
therefore  hampered  by  his  orders,  which  permitted 
him  only  to  protect  our  commerce,  and  which  for- 
bade actual  hostilities.  Nevertheless,  even  under 
these  limited  orders,  the  Enterprise,  of  twelve 
guns,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Sterrett,  fought 
an  action  with  the  Tripolitan  ship  Tripoli,  of 
fourteen  guns.  The  engagement  lasted  three 
hours,  when  the  Tripoli  struck,  having  lost  her 
mizzenmast,  and  with  twenty  of  her  crew  killed 
and  thirty  wounded.  Sterrett,  having  no  orders 
to  make  captures,  threw  all  the  guns  and  ammu- 
nition of  the  Tripoli  overboard,  cut  away  her 
remaining  masts,  and  left  her  with  only  one  spar 
and  a  single  sail  to  drift  back  to  Tripoli,  as  a  hint 
to  the  Bashaw  of  the  new  American  policy. 

In  1803  the  command  of  our  fleet  in  the  Medi- 
terranean was  taken  by  Commodore  Preble,  who 
had  just  succeeded  in  forcing  satisfaction  from 
Morocco  for  an  attack  made  upon  our  merchant- 
men by  a  vessel  from  Tangier.  He  also  pro- 
claimed a  blockade  of  Tripoli  and  was  preparing 
to  enforce   it  when   the   news   reached   him  that 


io6      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

the  frigate  Philadelphia,  forty- four  guns,  com- 
manded by  Captain  Bainbridge,  and  one  of  the 
best  ships  in  our  navy,  had  gone  upon  a  reef  in 
the  harbor  of  Tripoli,  while  pursuing  a  vessel  there, 
and  had  been  surrounded  and  captured,  with  all 
her  crew,  by  the  Tripolitan  gunboats,  when  she 
was  entirely  helpless  either  to  fight  or  sail.  This 
was  a  very  serious  blow  to  our  navy  and  to  our 
operations  against  Tripoli.  It  not  only  weakened 
our  forces,  but  it  was  also  a  great  help  to  the 
enemy.  The  Tripolitans  got  the  Philadelphia 
off  the  rocks,  towed  her  into  the  harbor,  and 
anchored  her  close  under  the  guns  of  their  forts. 
They  also  replaced  her  batteries,  and  prepared  to 
make  her  ready  for  sea,  where  she  would  have 
been  a  most  formidable  danger  to  our  shipping. 
Under  these  circumstances  Stephen  Decatur, 
a  young  lieutenant  in  command  of  the  Enter- 
prise, offered  to  Commodore  Preble  to  go  into 
the  harbor  and  destroy  the  Philadelphia.  Some 
delay  ensued,  as  our  squadron  was  driven  by  se- 
vere gales  from  the  Tripolitan  coast ;  but  at  last, 
in  January,  1804,  Preble  gave  orders  to  Decatur 
to  undertake  the  work  for  which  he  had  volun- 
teered. A  small  vessel  known  as  a  ketch  had 
been  recently  captured  from  the  Tripolitans  by 
Decatur,  and  this  prize  was  now  named  the  In- 
trepid, and  assigned  to  him  for  the  work  he  had 
in  hand.      He  took  seventy  men   from  his  own 


THE   BURNING    OF   THE    "PHILADELPHIA"      109 

ship,  the  Enterprise,  and  put  them  on  the  In- 
trepid, and  then,  accompanied  by  Lieutenant 
Stewart  in  the  Siren,  who  was  to  support 
him,  he  set  sail  for  Tripoli.  He  and  his  crew 
were  very  much  cramped  as  well  as  badly  fed  on 
the  little  vessel  which  had  been  given  to  them, 
but  they  succeeded,  nevertheless,  in  reaching  Tri- 
poli in  safety,  accompanied  by  the  Siren. 

For  nearly  a  week  they  were  unable  to  ap- 
proach the  harbor,  owing  to  severe  gales  which 
threatened  the  loss  of  their  vessel ;  but  on  Feb- 
ruary 16  the  weather  moderated  and  Decatur 
determined  to  go  in.  It  is  well  to  recall,  briefly, 
the  extreme  peril  of  the  attack  which  he  was 
about  to  make.  The  Philadelphia,  with  forty 
guns  mounted,  double-shotted,  and  ready  for  fir- 
ing, and  manned  by  a  full  complement  of  men, 
was  moored  within  half  a  gunshot  of  the  Ba- 
shaw's castle,  the  mole  and  crown  batteries,  and 
within  range  of  ten  other  batteries,  mounting,  al- 
together, one  hundred  and  fifteen  guns.  Some 
Tripolitan  cruisers,  two  galleys,  and  nineteen 
gunboats  also  lay  between  the  Philadelphia 
and  the  shore.  Into  the  midst  of  this  powerful 
armament  Decatur  had  to  go  with  his  little  vessel 
of  sixty  tons,  carrying  four  small  guns  and  hav- 
ing a  crew  of  seventy-five  men. 

The  Americans,  however,  were  entirely  undis- 
mayed by  the  odds  against  them,  and  at  seven 


no      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

o'clock  Decatur  went  into  the  harbor  between  the 
reef  and  shoal  which  formed  its  mouth.  He 
steered  on  steadily  toward  the  Philadelphia, 
the  breeze  getting  constantly  lighter,  and  by  half- 
past  nine  was  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the 
frigate.  As  they  approached  Decatur  stood  at 
the  helm  with  the  pilot,  only  two  or  three  men 
showing  on  deck  and  the  rest  of  the  crew  lying 
hidden  under  the  bulwarks.  In  this  way  he 
drifted  to  within  nearly  twenty  yards  of  the 
Philadelphia.  The  suspicions  of  the  Tripoli- 
tans,  however,  were  not  aroused,  and  when  they 
hailed  the  Intirepid,  the  pilot  answered  that 
they  had  lost  their  anchors  in  a  gale,  and  asked 
that  they  might  run  a  warp  to  the  frigate  and 
ride  by  her.  While  the  talk  went  on  the  In- 
trepid's  boat  shoved  off  with  the  rope,  and  pull- 
ing to  the  fore-chains  of  the  Philadelphia, 
made  the  line  fast.  A  few  of  the  crew  then  began 
to  haul  on  the  lines,  and  thus  the  Intrepid  was 
drawn  gradually  toward  the  frigate. 

The  suspicions  of  the  Tripolitans  were  now  at 
last  awakened.  They  raised  the  cry  of  "  Ameri- 
canos !  "  and  ordered  off  the  Intrepid,  but  it 
was  too  late.  As  the  vessels  came  in  contact, 
Decatur  sprang  up  the  main  chains  of  the  Phila- 
delphia, calling  out  the  order  to  board.  He 
was  rapidly  followed  by  his  officers  and  men,  and 
as  they  swarmed  over  the  rails  and  came  upon 


•  '■ 


THE   BURNING   OF   THE    "PHILADELPHIA"      in 

the  deck,  the  Tripolitan  crew  gathered,  panic- 
stricken,  in  a  confused  mass  on  the  forecastle. 
Decatur  waited  a  moment  until  his  men  were  be- 
hind him,  and  then,  placing  himself  at  their  head, 
drew  his  sword  and  rushed  upon  the  Tripolitans. 
There  was  a  very  short  struggle,  and  the  Tripoli- 
tans,  crowded  together,  terrified  and  surprised, 
were  cut  down  or  driven  overboard.  In  five  min- 
utes the  ship  was  cleared  of  the  enemy. 

Decatur  would  have  liked  to  have  taken  the 
Philadelphia  out  of  the  harbor,  but  that  was 
impossible.  He  therefore  gave  orders  to  burn 
the  ship,  and  his  men,  who  had  been  thoroughly 
instructed  in  what  they  were  to  do,  dispersed  into 
all  parts  of  the  frigate  with  the  combustibles 
which  had  been  prepared,  and  in  a  few  minutes, 
so  well  and  quickly  was  the  work  done,  the 
flames  broke  out  in  all  parts  of  the  Philadelphia. 
As  soon  as  this  was  effected  the  order  was  given 
to  return  to  the  Intrepid.  Without  confusion  the 
men  obeyed.  It  was  a  moment  of  great  danger, 
for  fire  was  breaking  out  on  all  sides,  and  the 
Intrepid  herself,  filled  as  she  was  with  powder 
and  combustibles,  was  in  great  peril  of  sudden 
destruction.  The  rapidity  of  Decatur's  move- 
ments, however,  saved  everything.  The  cables 
were  cut,  the  sweeps  got  out,  and  the  Intrepid 
drew  rapidly  away  from  the  burning  frigate.  It 
was  a  magnificent  sight  as  the  flames  burst  out 


H2       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

over  the  Philadelphia  and  ran  rapidly  and 
fiercely  up  the  masts  and  rigging.  As  her  guns 
became  heated  they  were  discharged,  one  battery 
pouring  its  shots  into  the  town.  Finally  the 
cables  parted,  and  then  the  Philadelphia,  a 
mass  of  flames,  drifted  across  the  harbor  and 
blew  up.  Meantime  the  batteries  of  the  ship- 
ping and  the  castle  had  been  turned  upon  the 
Intrepid,  but  although  the  shot  struck  all 
around  her,  she  escaped  successfully  with  only 
one  shot  through  her  mainsail,  and,  joining  the 
Siren,  bore  away. 

This  successful  attack  was  carried  through  by 
the  cool  courage  of  Decatur  and  the  admirable 
discipline  of  his  men.  The  hazard  was  very 
great,  the  odds  were  very  heavy,  and  everything 
depended  on  the  nerve  with  which  the  attack 
was  made  and  the  completeness  of  the  surprise. 
Nothing  miscarried,  and  no  success  could  have 
been  more  complete.  Nelson,  at  that  time  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  the  best  judge  of  a  naval  ex- 
ploit as  well  as  the  greatest  naval  commander 
who  has  ever  lived,  pronounced  it  "the  most 
bold  and  daring  act  of  the  age."  We  meet  no 
single  feat  exactly  like  it  in  our  own  naval  his- 
tory, brilliant  as  that  has  been,  until  we  come  to 
Cushing's  destruction  of  the  Albemarle  in  the 
war  of  the  rebellion.  In  the  years  that  have 
elapsed,  and   among  the  great  events  that  have 


THE   BURNING   OF   THE    "PHILADELPHIA"      113 

occurred  since  that  time,  Decatur's  burning  of 
the  Philadelphia  has  been  well-nigh  forgotten ; 
but  it  is  one  of  those  feats  of  arms  which  illus- 
trate the  high  courage  of  American  seamen,  and 
which  ought  always  to  be  remembered. 


- 


■ 


THE   CRUISE   OF  THE   "WASP" 


/ 


A  crash  as  when  some  swollen  cloud 

Cracks  o'er  the  tangled  trees  ! 
With  side  to  side,  and  spar  to  spar, 

Whose  smoking  decks  are  these? 
I  know  St.  George's  blood-red  cross, 

Thou  mistress  of  the  seas, 
But  what  is  she  whose  streaming  bars 

Roll  out  before  the  breeze  ? 

Ah,  well  her  iron  ribs  are  knit. 

Whose  thunders  strive  to  quell 
The  bellowing  throats,  the  blazing  lips, 

That  pealed  the  Armada's  knell  ! 
The  mist  was  cleared, —  a  wreath  of  stars 

Rose  o'er  the  crimsoned  swell, 
And,  wavering  from  its  haughty  peak, 

The  cross  of  England  fell  ! 

— Holmes. 


THE    CRUISE   OF   THE    "WASP" 


IN  the  war  of  1812  the  little  American  navy, 
including  only  a  dozen  frigates  and  sloops  of 
war,  won  a  series  of  victories  against  the  Eng- 
lish, the  hitherto  undoubted  masters  of  the  sea, 
that  attracted  an  attention  altogether  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  force  of  the  combatants  or  the  actual 
damage  done.  For  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
the  English  ships  of  war  had  failed  to  find  fit  rivals 
in  those  of  any  other  European  power,  although 
they  had  been  matched  against  each  in  turn  ;  and 
when  the  unknown  navy  of  the  new  nation  grow- 
ing up  across  the  Atlantic  did  what  no  European 
navy  had  ever  been  able  to  do,  not  only  the  Eng- 
lish and  Americans,  but  the  people  of  Continental 
Europe  as  well,  regarded  the  feat  as  important 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  material  aspects  of  the 
case.  The  Americans  first  proved  that  the  Eng- 
lish could  be  beaten  at  their  own  game  on  the 
sea.  They  did  what  the  huge  fleets  of  France, 
Spain,  and  Holland  had  failed  to  do,  and  the  great 


. 


n8       HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

modern  writers  on  naval  warfare  in  Continental 
Europe  —  men  like  Jurien  de  la  Graviere  —  have 
paid  the  same  attention  to  these  contests  of  frig- 
ates and  sloops  that  they  give  to  whole  fleet 
actions  of  other  wars. 

Among  the  famous  ships  of  the  Americans  in 
this  war  were  two  named  the  Wasp.  The  first 
was  an  eighteen-gun  ship-sloop,  which  at  the  very- 
outset  of  the  war  captured  a  British  brig-sloop  of 
twenty  guns,  after  an  engagement  in  which  the 
British  fought  with  great  gallantry,  but  were 
knocked  to  pieces,  while  the  Americans  escaped 
comparatively  unscathed.  Immediately  afterward 
a  British  seventy-four  captured  the  victor.  In 
memory  of  her  the  Americans  gave  the  same  name 
to  one  of  the  new  sloops  they  were  building. 
These  sloops  were  stoutly  made,  speedy  vessels 
which  in  strength  and  swiftness  compared  favor- 
ably with  any  ships  of  their  class  in  any  other 
navy  of  the  day,  for  the  American  shipwrights 
were  already  as  famous  as  the  American  gunners 
and  seamen.  The  new  Wasp,  like  her  sister  ships, 
carried  twenty-two  guns  and  a  crew  of  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  men,  and  was  ship-rigged. 
Twenty  of  her  guns  were  3  2 -pound  carronades, 
while  for  bow-chasers  she  had  two  "long  Toms." 
It  was  in  the  year  18 14  that  the  Wasp  sailed  from 
the  United  States  to  prey  on  the  navy  and  com- 
merce of  Great  Britain.      Her  commander  was  a 


* 

* 


THE   CRUISE   OF   THE   "WASP"  119 

gallant  South  Carolinian  named  Captain  Johnson 
Blakeley.  Her  crew  were  nearly  all  native  Ameri- 
cans, and  were  an  exceptionally  fine  set  of  men. 
Instead  of  staying  near  the  American  coasts  or 
of  sailing  the  high  seas,  the  Wasp  at  once  headed 
boldly  for  the  English  Channel,  to  carry  the  war 
to  the  very  doors  of  the  enemy. 

At  that  time  the  English  fleets  had  destroyed 
the  navies  of  every  other  power  of  Europe,  and 
had  obtained  such  complete  supremacy  over  the 
French  that  the  French  fleets  were  kept  in  port. 
Off  these  ports  lay  the  great  squadrons  of  the  Eng- 
lish ships  of  the  line,  never,  in  gale  or  in  calm, 
relaxing  their  watch  upon  the  rival  war-ships  of 
the  French  emperor.  So  close  was  the  blockade 
of  the  French  ports,  and  so  hopeless  were  the 
French  of  making  headway  in  battle  with  their 
antagonists,  that  not  only  the  great  French  three- 
deckers  and  two-deckers,  but  their  frigates  and 
sloops  as  well,  lay  harmless  in  their  harbors,  and 
the  English  ships  patroled  the  seas  unchecked  in 
every  direction.  A  few  French  privateers  still 
slipped  out  now  and  then,  and  the  far  bolder  and 
more  formidable  American  privateersmen  drove 
hither  and  thither  across  the  ocean  in  their  swift 
schooners  and  brigantines,  and  harried  the  Eng- 
lish commerce  without  mercy. 

The  Wasp  proceeded  at  once  to  cruise  in  the 
English  Channel  and  off  the  coasts  of  England, 


' 


120      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

France,  and  Spain.  Here  the  water  was  traversed 
continually  by  English  fleets  and  squadrons  and 
single  ships  of  war,  which  were  sometimes  con- 
voying detachments  of  troops  for  Wellington's 
Peninsular  army,  sometimes  guarding  fleets  of 
merchant  vessels  bound  homeward,  and  sometimes 
merely  cruising  for  foes.  It  was  this  spot,  right 
in  the  teeth  of  the  British  naval  power,  that  the 

Wasp  chose  for  her  cruising  ground.  Hither  and 
thither  she  sailed  through  the  narrow  seas,  cap- 
turing and  destroying  the  merchantmen,  and  by 
the  seamanship  of  her  crew  and  the  skill  and  vigi- 
lance of  her  commander,  escaping  the  pursuit  of 
frigate  and  ship  of  the  line.  Before  she  had  been 
long  on  the  ground,  one  June  morning,  while  in 
chase  of  a  couple  of  merchant  ships,  she  spied  a 
sloop  of  war,  the  British  brig  Reindeer,  of  eigh- 
teen guns  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  men.  The 
Reindeer  was  a  weaker  ship  than  the  Wasp,  her 
guns  were  lighter,  and  her  men  fewer  ;  but  her 
commander,  Captain  Manners,  was  one  of  the 
most  gallant  men  in  the  splendid  British  navy, 
and  he  promptly  took  up  the  gage  of  battle  which 
the  Wasp  threw  down. 

The  day  was  calm  and  nearly  still ;   only  a  light 
wind  stirred  across  the  sea.     At  one  o'clock  the 

Wasp's  drum  beat  to  quarters,  and  the  sailors 
and  marines  gathered  at  their  appointed  posts. 
The  drum  of  the  Reindeer  responded  to  the  chal- 


i 


THE   CRUISE   OF   THE    "WASP"  121 

lenge,  and  with  her  sails  reduced  to  fighting  trim, 
her  guns  run  out,  and  every  man  ready,  she  came 
down  upon  the  Yankee  ship.  On  her  forecastle 
she  had  rigged  a  light  carronade,  and  coming  up 
from  behind,  she  five  times  discharged  this  point- 
blank  into  the  American  sloop  ;  then  in  the  light 
air  the  latter  luffed  round,  firing  her  guns  as  they 
bore,  and  the  two  ships  engaged  yard-arm  to  yard- 
arm.  The  guns  leaped  and  thundered  as  the 
grimy  gunners  hurled  them  out  to  fire  and  back 
again  to  load,  working  like  demons.  For  a  few 
minutes  the  cannonade  was  tremendous,  and  the 
men  in  the  tops  could  hardly  see  the  decks  for 
the  wreck  of  flying  splinters.  Then  the  vessels 
ground  together,  and  through  the  open  ports  the 
rival  gunners  hewed,  hacked,  and  thrust  at  one 
another,  while  the  black  smoke  curled  up  from 
between  the  hulls.  The  English  were  suffering 
terribly.  Captain  Manners  himself  was  wounded, 
and  realizing  that  he  was  doomed  to  defeat  unless 
by  some  desperate  effort  he  could  avert  it,  he 
gave  the  signal  to  board.  At  the  call  the  board- 
ers gathered,  naked  to  the  waist,  black  with  pow- 
der and  spattered  with  blood,  cutlas  and  pistol 
in  hand.  But  the  Americans  were  ready.  Their 
marines  were  drawn  up  on  deck,  the  pikemen 
stood  behind  the  bulwarks,  and  the  officers 
watched,  cool  and  alert,  every  movement  of  the 
foe.     Then  the  British  sea-dogs  tumbled  aboard, 


122       HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

only  to  perish  by  shot  or  steel.  The  com- 
batants slashed  and  stabbed  with  savage  fury, 
and  the  assailants  were  driven  back.  Manners 
sprang  to  their  head  to  lead  them  again  himself, 
when  a  ball  fired  by  one  of  the  sailors  in  the 
American  tops  crashed  through  his  skull,  and  he 
fell,  sword  in  hand,  with  his  face  to  the  foe,  dying 
as  honorable  a  death  as  ever  a  brave  man  died  in 
fighting  against  odds  for  the  flag  of  his  country. 
As  he  fell  the  American  officers  passed  the  word 
to  board.  With  wild  cheers  the  fighting  sailor- 
men  sprang  forward,  sweeping  the  wreck  of  the 
British  force  before  them,  and  in  a  minute  the 
Reindeer  was  in  their  possession.  All  of  her  offi- 
cers, and  nearly  two  thirds  of  the  crew,  were  killed 
or  wounded ;  but  they  had  proved  themselves  as 
skilful  as  they  were  brave,  and  twenty-six  of  the 
Americans  had  been  killed  or  wounded. 

The  Wasp  set  fire  to  her  prize,  and  after  retir- 
ing to  a  French  port  to  refit,  came  out  again  to 
cruise.  For  some  time  she  met  no  antagonist  of 
her  own  size  with  which  to  wage  war,  and  she 
had  to  exercise  the  sharpest  vigilance  to  escape 
capture.  Late  one  September  afternoon,  when 
she  could  see  ships  of  war  all  around  her,  she 
selected  one  which  was  isolated  from  the  others, 
and  decided  to  run  alongside  her  and  try  to  sink 
her  after  nightfall.  Accordingly  she  set  her  sails 
in  pursuit,  and  drew  steadily  toward  her  antago- 
nist, a  big  eighteen-gun  brig,  the  Avon,  a  ship 


"THE    FIGHTING    SAILOR-MEN     SPRANG    FORWARD. 


THE   CRUISE    OF    THE    "WASP"  125 

more  powerful  than  the  Reindeer.  The  Avon 
kept  signaling  to  two  other  British  war  vessels 
which  were  in  sight  —  one  an  eighteen-gun  brig 
and  the  other  a  twenty-gun  ship ;  they  were  so 
close  that  the  Wasp  was  afraid  they  would  inter- 
fere before  the  combat  could  be  ended.  Never- 
theless, Blakeley  persevered,  and  made  his  attack 
with  equal  skill  and  daring.  It  was  after  dark 
when  he  ran  alongside  his  opponent,  and  they 
began  forthwith  to  exchange  furious  broadsides. 
As  the  ships  plunged  and  wallowed  in  the  seas, 
the  Americans  could  see  the  clusters  of  topmen 
in  the  rigging  of  their  opponent,  but  they  knew 
nothing  of  the  vessel's  name  or  of  her  force,  save 
only  so  far  as  they  felt  it.  The  firing  was  fast 
and  furious,  but  the  British  shot  with  bad  aim, 
while  the  skilled  American  gunners  hulled  their 
opponent  at  almost  every  discharge.  In  a  very 
few  minutes  the  Avon  was  in  a  sinking  condition, 
and  she  struck  her  flag  and  cried  for  quarter, 
having  lost  forty  or  fifty  men,  while  but  three  of 
the  Americans  had  fallen.  Before  the  Wasp  could 
take  possession  of  her  opponent,  however,  the 
two  war  vessels  to  which  the  Avon  had  been  sig- 
naling came  up.  One  of  them  fired  at  the  Wasp, 
and  as  the  latter  could  not  fight  two  new  foes,  she 
ran  off  easily  before  the  wind.  Neither  of  her 
new  antagonists  followed  her,  devoting  themselves 
to  picking  up  the  crew  of  the  sinking  Avon. 
It  would  be  hard   to  find   a  braver  feat  more 


126      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

skilfully  performed  than  this ;  for  Captain  Blake- 
ley,  with  hostile  foes  all  round  him,  had  closed 
with  and  sunk  one  antagonist  not  greatly  his  in- 
ferior in  force,  suffering  hardly  any  loss  himself, 
while  two  of  her  friends  were  coming  to  her  help. 

Both  before  and  after  this  the  Wasp  cruised 
hither  and  thither  making  prizes.  Once  she  came 
across  a  convoy  of  ships  bearing  arms  and  mu- 
nitions to  Wellington's  army,  under  the  care  of 
a  great  two-decker.  Hovering  about,  the  swift 
sloop  evaded  the  two-decker's  movements,  and 
actually  cut  out  and  captured  one  of  the  trans- 
ports she  was  guarding,  making  her  escape  un- 
harmed. Then  she  sailed  for  the  hio-h  seas.  She 
made  several  other  prizes,  and  on  October  9  spoke 
a  Swedish  brie. 

This  was  the  last  that  was  ever  heard  of  the 
gallant  Wasp.  She  never  again  appeared,  and 
no  trace  of  any  of  those  aboard  her  was  ever 
found.  Whether  she  was  wrecked  on  some  desert 
coast,  whether  she  foundered  in  some  furious  gale, 
or  what  befell  her  none  ever  knew.  All  that  is 
certain  is  that  she  perished,  and  that  all  on  board 
her  met  death  in  some  one  of  the  myriad  forms 
in  which  it  must  always  be  faced  by  those  who  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships ;  and  when  she  sank 
there  sank  one  of  the  most  gallant  ships  of  the 
American  navy,  with  as  brave  a  captain  and  crew 
as  ever  sailed  from  any  port  of  the  New  World. 


THE    "GENERAL   ARMSTRONG" 
PRIVATEER 


We  have  fought  such  a  fight  for  a  day  and  a  night 

As  may  never  be  fought  again  ! 

We  have  won  great  glory,  my  men  : 

And  a  day  less  or  more 

At  sea  or  ashore, 

We  die  —  does  it  matter  when  ? 

—  Tennyson. 


THE    -GENERAL   ARMSTRONG" 
PRIVATEER 


IN  the  revolution,  and  again  in  the  war  of  1812, 
the  seas  were  covered  by  swift-sailing  Ameri- 
can privateers,  which  preyed  on  the  British  trade. 
The  hardy  seamen  of  the  New  England  coast,  and 
of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  turned 
readily  from  their  adventurous  careers  in  the 
whalers  that  followed  the  giants  of  the  ocean  in 
every  sea  and  every  clime,  and  from  trading  voy- 
ages to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  to  go 
into  the  business  of  privateering,  which  was  more 
remunerative,  and  not  so  very  much  more  dan- 
gerous, than  their  ordinary  pursuits.  By  the  end 
of  the  war  of  181 2,  in  particular,  the  American 
privateers  had  won  for  themselves  a  formidable 
position  on  the  ocean.  The  schooners,  brigs, 
and  brigantines  in  which  the  privateersmen  sailed 
were  beautifully  modeled,  and  were  among  the 
fastest  craft  afloat.  They  were  usually  armed  with 
one  heavy  gun,  the  "  long  Tom,"  as  it  was  called, 
arranged  on   a  pivot  forward   or  amidships,  and 


130      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

with  a  few  lighter  pieces  of  cannon.  They  carried 
strong  crews  of  well-armed  men,  and  their  com- 
manders were  veteran  seamen,  used  to  brave  every 
danger  from  the  elements  or  from  man.  So  boldly 
did  they  prey  on  the  British  commerce,  that  they 
infested  even 'the  Irish  Sea  and  the  British  Chan- 
nel, and  increased  many  times  the  rate  of  insurance 
on  vessels  passing  across  those  waters.  They  also 
often  did  battle  with  the  regular  men-of-war  of 
the  British,  being  favorite  objects  for  attack  by 
cutting-out  parties  from  the  British  frigates  and 
ships  of  the  line,  and  also  frequently  encountering 
in  fight  the  smaller  sloops-of- war.  Usually,  in  these 
contests,  the  privateersmen  were  worsted,  for  they 
had  not  the  training  which  is  obtained  only  in  a 
regular  service,  and  they  were  in  no  way  to  be 
compared  to  the  little  fleet  of  regular  vessels  which 
in  this  same  war  so  gloriously  upheld  the  honor  of 
the  American  flag.  Nevertheless,  here  and  there 
a  privateer  commanded  by  an  exceptionally  brave 
and  able  captain,  and  manned  by  an  unusually 
well-trained  crew,  performed  some  feat  of  arms 
which  deserves  to  rank  with  anything  ever  per- 
formed by  the  regular  navy.  Such  a  feat  was  the 
defense  of  the  brig  General  Armstrong,  in  the 
Portuguese  port  of  Fayal,  of  the  Azores,  against 
an  overwhelming  British  force. 

The  General  Armstrong 'hailed  from  New  York, 
and  her  captain  was  named  Reid.     She  had  a  crew 


THE    "GENERAL    ARMSTRONG"    PRIVATEER     131 

of  ninety  men,  and  was  armed  with  one  heavy  32- 
pounder  and  six  lighter  guns.  In  December,  1 8 1 4, 
she  was  lying  in  Fayal,  a  neutral  port,  when  four 
British  war-vessels,  a  ship  of  the  line,  a  frigate  and 
two  brigs,  hove  into  sight,  and  anchored  off  the 
mouth  of  the  harbor.  The  port  was  neutral,  but 
Portugal  was  friendly  to  England,  and  Reid  knew 
well  that  the  British  would  pay  no  respect  to  the 
neutrality  laws  if  they  thought  that  at  the  cost  of 
their  violation  they  could  destroy  the  privateer. 
He  immediately  made  every  preparation  to  resist 
an  attack.  The  privateer  was  anchored  close  to 
the  shore.  The  boarding-nettings  were  got  ready, 
and  were  stretched  to  booms  thrust  outward  from 
the  brig's  side,  so  as  to  check  the  boarders  as  they 
tried  to  climb  over  the  bulwarks.  The  guns  were 
loaded  and  cast  loose,  and  the  men  went  to 
quarters  armed  with  muskets,  boarding-pikes,  and 
cutlases. 

On  their  side  the  British  made  ready  to  carry 
the  privateer  by  boarding.  The  shoals  rendered 
it  impossible  for  the  heavy  ships  to  approach,  and 
the  lack  of  wind  and  the  baffling  currents  also 
interfered  for  the  moment  with  the  movements  of 
the  sloops-of-war.  Accordingly  recourse  was  had 
to  a  cutting-out  party,  always  a  favorite  device 
■vith  the  British  seamen  of  that  age,  who  were 
accustomed  to  carry  French  frigates  by  boarding, 
and  to  capture  in  their  boats  the  heavy  privateers 


132       HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

and  armed  merchantmen,  as  well  as  the  lighter 
war-vessels  of  France  and  Spain. 

The  British  first  attempted  to  get  possession  of 
the  brig  by  surprise,  sending  out  but  four  boats. 
These  worked  down  near  to  the  brig,  under  pre- 
tense of  sounding,  trying  to  get  close  enough  to 
make  a  rush  and  board  her.  The  privateersmen 
were  on  their  guard,  and  warned  the  boats  off; 
and  after  the  warning  had  been  repeated  once  or 
twice  unheeded,  they  fired  into  them,  killing  and 
wounding  several  men.  Upon  this  the  boats 
promptly  returned  to  the  ships. 

This  first  check  greatly  irritated  the  British  cap- 
tains, and  they  decided  to  repeat  the  experiment 
that  night  with  a  force  which  would  render  resis- 
tance vain.  Accordingly,  after  it  became  dark,  a 
dozen  boats  were  sent  from  the  liner  and  the 
frigate,  manned  by  four  hundred  stalwart  British 
seamen,  and  commanded  by  the  captain  of  one  of 
the  brigs  of  war.  Through  the  night  they  rowed 
straight  toward  the  little  privateer  lying  dark  and 
motionless  in  the  gloom.  As  before,  the  privateers- 
men were  ready  for  their  foe,  and  when  they  came 
within  range  opened  fire  upon  them,  first  with  the 
long  gun  and  then  with  the  lighter  cannon;  but 
the  British  rowed  on  with  steady  strokes,  for  they 
were  seamen  accustomed  to  victory  over  every 
European  foe,  and  danger  had  no  terrors  for 
them.     With  fierce  hurrahs  they  dashed  through 


THE    "GENERAL   ARMSTRONG"   PRIVATEER    135 

the  shot-riven  smoke  and  grappled  the  brig ;  and 
the  boarders  rose,  cutlas  in  hand,  ready  to  spring 
over  the  bulwarks.  A  terrible  struggle  followed. 
The  British  hacked  at  the  boarding-nets  and  strove 
to  force  their  way  through  to  the  decks  of  the  pri- 
vateer, while  the  Americans  stabbed  the  assailants 
with  their  long  pikes  and  slashed  at  them  with  their 
cutlases.  The  darkness  was  lit  by  the  flashes 
of  flame  from  the  muskets  and  the  cannon,  and 
the  air  was  rent  by  the  oaths  and  shouts  of  the 
combatants,  the  heavy  trampling  on  the  decks, 
the  groans  of  the  wounded,  the  din  of  weapon 
meeting  weapon,  and  all  the  savage  tumult  of  a 
hand-to-hand  fight.  At  the  bow  the  British  burst 
through  the  boarding-netting,  and  forced  their  way 
to  the  deck,  killing  or  wounding  all  three  of  the 
lieutenants  of  the  privateer ;  but  when  this  had 
happened  the  boats  had  elsewhere  been  beaten 
back,  and  Reid,  rallying  his  grim  sea-dogs,  led 
them  forward  with  a  rush,  and  the  boarding  party 
were  all  killed  or  tumbled  into  the  sea.  This  put 
an  end  to  the  fight.  In  some  of  the  boats  none 
but  killed  and  wounded  men  were  left.  The  others 
drew  slowly  off,  like  crippled  wild-fowl,  and  disap- 
peared in  the  darkness  toward  the  British  squad- 
ron. Half  of  the  attacking  force  had  been  killed 
or  wounded,  while  of  the  Americans  but  nine  had 
fallen. 

The  British  commodore  and  all  his  officers  were 


136       HERO    TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

maddened  with  anger  and  shame  over  the  repulse, 
and  were  bent  upon  destroying  the  privateer  at 
all  costs.  Next  day,  after  much  exertion,  one  of 
the  war-brigs  was  warped  into  position  to  attack 
the  American,  but  she  first  took  her  station  at  long 
range,  so  that  her  carronades  were  not  as  effective 
as  the  pivot  gun  of  the  privateer  ;  and  so  well  was 
the  latter  handled,  that  the  British  brig  was  repeat- 
edly hulled,  and  finally  was  actually  driven  off.  A 
second  attempt  was  made,  however,  and  this  time 
the  sloop-of-war  got  so  close  that  she  could  use 
her  heavy  carronades,  which  put  the  privateer 
completely  at  her  mercy.  Then  Captain  Reid 
abandoned  his  brig  and  sank  her,  first  carrying 
ashore  the  guns,  and  marched  inland  with  his  men. 
They  were  not  further  molested  ;  and,  if  they  had 
lost  their  brig,  they  had  at  least  made  their  foes 
pay  dear  for  her  destruction,  for  the  British  had 
lost  twice  as  many  men  as  there  were  in  the  whole 
hard-fighting  crew  of  the  American  privateer. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 


The  heavy  fog  of  morning 

Still  hid  the  plain  from  sight, 
When  came  a  thread  of  scarlet 

Marked  faintly  in  the  white. 
We  fired  a  single  cannon, 

And  as  its  thunders  rolled, 
The  mist  before  us  lifted 

In  many  a  heavy  fold. 
The  mist  before  us  lifted, 

And  in  their  bravery  fine 
Came  rushing  to  their  ruin 

The  fearless  British  line. 

—  Thomas  Dunn  English. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS 

WHEN,  in  1 8 14,  Napoleon  was  overthrown 
and  forced  to  retire  to  Elba,  the  British 
troops  that  had  followed  Wellington  into  south- 
ern France  were  left  free  for  use  against  the 
Americans.  A  great  expedition  was  organized 
to  attack  and  capture  New  Orleans,  and  at  its 
head  was  placed  General  Pakenham,  the  brilliant 
commander  of  the  column  that  delivered  the  fatal 
blow  at  Salamanca.  In  December  a  fleet  of 
British  war-ships  and  transports,  carrying  thou- 
sands of  victorious  veterans  from  the  Peninsula, 
and  manned  by  sailors  who  had  grown  old  in  a 
quarter  of  a  century's  triumphant  ocean  warfare, 
anchored  off  the  broad  lagoons  of  the  Mississippi 
delta.  The  few  American  gunboats  were  car- 
ried after  a  desperate  hand-to-hand  struggle,  the 
troops  were  landed,  and  on  December  23  the  ad- 
vance-gfuard  of  two  thousand  men  reached  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi,  but  ten  miles  below 
New  Orleans,  and  there  camped  for  the  night. 


Ho      HERO    TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

It  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  save  the  Creole 
City  from  foes  who  had  shown,  in  the  storming 
of  many  a  Spanish  walled  town,  that  they  were 
as  ruthless  in  victory  as  they  were  terrible  in 
battle.  There  were  no  forts  to  protect  the  place, 
and  the  militia  were  ill  armed  and  ill  trained. 
But  the  hour  found  the  man.  On  the  afternoon 
of  the  very  day  when  the  British  reached  the 
banks  of  the  river  the  vanguard  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son's Tennesseeans  marched  into  New  Orleans. 
Clad  in  hunting-shirts  of  buckskin  or  homespun, 
wearing  wolfskin  and  coonskin  caps,  and  carry- 
ing their  long  rifles  on  their  shoulders,  the  wild 
soldiery  of  the  backwoods  tramped  into  the  little 
French  town.  They  were  tall  men,  with  sinewy 
frames  and  piercing  eyes.  Under  "  Old  Hick- 
ory's "  lead  they  had  won  the  bloody  battle  of 
the  Horseshoe  Bend  against  the  Creeks ;  they 
had  driven  the  Spaniards  from  Pensacola ;  and 
now  they  were  eager  to  pit  themselves  against 
the  most  renowned  troops  of  all  Europe. 

Jackson  acted  with  his  usual  fiery,  hasty  deci- 
sion. It  was  absolutely  necessary  to  get  time  in 
which  to  throw  up  some  kind  of  breastworks  or 
defenses  for  the  city,  and  he  at  once  resolved  on  a 
night  attack  against  the  British.  As  for  the  Brit- 
ish, they  had  no  thought  of  being  molested.  They 
did  not  dream  of  an  assault  from  inferior  numbers 
of  undisciplined   and   ill-armed   militia,  who    did 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS       141 

not  possess  so  much  as  bayonets  to  their  guns. 
They  kindled  fires  along  the  levees,  ate  their 
supper,  and  then,  as  the  evening  fell,  noticed  a 
big  schooner  drop  down  the  river  in  ghostly 
silence  and  bring  up  opposite  to  them.  The 
soldiers  flocked  to  the  shore,  challenging  the 
stranger,  and  finally  fired  one  or  two  shots  at 
her.  Then  suddenly  a  rough  voice  was  heard, 
"  Now  give  it  to  them,  for  the  honor  of  Amer- 
ica !  "  and  a  shower  of  shell  and  grape  fell  on  the 
British,  driving  them  off  the  levee.  The  stranger 
was  an  American  man-of-war  schooner.  The 
British  brought  up  artillery  to  drive  her  off,  but 
before  they  succeeded  Jackson's  land  troops 
burst  upon  them,  and  a  fierce,  indecisive  struggle 
followed.  In  the  night  all  order  was  speedily 
lost,  and  the  two  sides  fought  singly  or  in  groups 
in  the  utmost  confusion.  Finally  a  fog  came  up 
and  the  combatants  separated.  Jackson  drew  off 
four  or  five  miles  and  camped. 

The  British  had  been  so  roughly  handled  that 
they  were  unable  to  advance  for  three  or  four 
days,  until  the  entire  army  came  up.  When  they 
did  advance,  it  was  only  to  find  that  Jackson  had 
made  good  use  of  the  time  he  had  gained  by  his 
daring  assault.  He  had  thrown  up  breastworks 
of  mud  and  logs  from  the  swamp  to  the  river. 
At  first  the  British  tried  to  batter  down  these 
breastworks    with    their    cannon,    for    they    had 


142       HERO   TALES   FROM  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

many  more  guns  than  the  Americans.  A  terrible 
artillery  duel  followed.  For  an  hour  or  two  the 
result  seemed  in  doubt ;  but  the  American  gun- 
ners showed  themselves  to  be  far  more  skilful 
than  their  antagonists,  and  gradually  getting  the 
upper  hand,  they  finally  silenced  every  piece  of 
British  artillery.  The  Americans  had  used  cotton 
bales  in  the  embrasures,  and  the  British  hogs- 
heads of  sugar ;  but  neither  worked  well,  for  the 
cotton  caught  fire  and  the  sugar  hogsheads  were 
ripped  and  splintered  by  the  round-shot,  so  that 
both  were  abandoned.  By  the  use  of  red-hot 
shot  the  British  succeeded  in  setting  on  fire  the 
American  schooner  which  had  caused  them  such 
annoyance  on  the  evening  of  the  night  attack ; 
but  she  had  served  her  purpose,  and  her  destruc- 
tion caused  little  anxiety  to  Jackson. 

Having  failed  in  his  effort  to  batter  down  the 
American  breastworks,  and  the  British  artillery 
having  been  fairly  worsted  by  the  American, 
Pakenham  decided  to  try  open  assault.  He  had 
ten  thousand  regular  troops,  while  Jackson  had 
under  him  but  little  over  five  thousand  men,  who 
were  trained  only  as  he  had  himself  trained  them 
in  his  Indian  campaigns.  Not  a  fourth  of  them 
carried  bayonets.  Both  Pakenham  and  the  troops 
under  him  were  fresh  from  victories  won  over 
the  most  renowned  marshals  of  Napoleon,  and 
over  soldiers  that  had  proved  themselves  on   a 


ANDREW   JACKSON. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   NEW   ORLEANS  145 

hundred  stricken  fields  the  masters  of  all  others 
in  Continental  Europe.  At  Toulouse  they  had 
driven  Marshal  Soult  from  a  position  infinitely 
stronger  than  that  held  by  Jackson,  and  yet 
Soult  had  under  him  a  veteran  army.  At  Bada- 
joz,  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  and  San  Sebastian  they 
had  carried  by  open  assault  fortified  towns 
whose  strength  made  the  intrenchments  of  the 
Americans  seem  like  the  mud  walls  built  by  chil- 
dren, though  these  towns  were  held  by  the  best 
soldiers  of  France.  With  such  troops  to  follow 
him,  and  with  such  victories  behind  him  in  the 
past,  it  did  not  seem  possible  to  Pakenham  that 
the  assault  of  the  terrible  British  infantry  could 
be  successfully  met  by  rough  backwoods  riflemen 
fighting  under  a  general  as  wild  and  untrained 
as  themselves. 

He  decreed  that  the  assault  should  take  place 
on  the  morning  of  the  eighth.  Throughout  the 
previous  night  the  American  officers  were  on  the 
alert,  for  they  could  hear  the  rumbling  of  artillery 
in  the  British  camp,  the  muffled  tread  of  the  bat- 
talions as  they  were  marched  to  their  points  in 
the  line,  and  all  the  smothered  din  of  the  prepa- 
ration for  assault.  Long  before  dawn  the  rifle- 
men were  awake  and  drawn  up  behind  the  mud 
walls,  where  they  lolled  at  ease,  or,  leaning  on 
their  long  rifles,  peered  out  through  the  fog  to- 
ward the  camp  of  their  foes.    At  last  the  sun  rose 


146      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

and  the  fog  lifted,  showing  the  scarlet  array  of 
the  splendid  British  infantry.  As  soon  as  the  air 
was  clear  Pakenham  gave  the  word,  and  the 
heavy  columns  of  red-coated  grenadiers  and 
kilted  Highlanders  moved  steadily  forward.  From 
the  American  breastworks  the  great  guns  opened, 
but  not  a  rifle  cracked.  Three  fourths  of  the  dis- 
tance were  covered,  and  the  eager  soldiers  broke 
into  a  run  ;  then  sheets  of  flame  burst  from  the 
breastworks  in  their  front  as  the  wild  riflemen 
of  the  backwoods  rose  and  fired,  line  upon  line. 
Under  the  sweeping  hail  the  head  of  the  British 
advance  was  shattered,  and  the  whole  column 
stopped.  Then  it  surged  forward  again,  almost 
to  the  foot  of  the  breastworks ;  but  not  a  man 
lived  to  reach  them,  and  in  a  moment  more  the 
troops  broke  and  ran  back.  Mad  with  shame 
and  rage,  Pakenham  rode  among  them  to  rally 
and  lead  them  forward,  and  the  officers  sprang 
around  him,  smiting  the  fugitives  with  their 
swords  and  cheering  on  the  men  who  stood.  For 
a  moment  the  troops  halted,  and  again  came  for- 
ward to  the  charge  ;  but  again  they  were  met  by 
a  hail  of  bullets  from  the  backwoods  rifles.  One 
shot  struck  Pakenham  himself.  He  reeled  and 
fell  from  the  saddle,  and  was  carried  off  the  field. 
The  second  and  third  in  command  fell  also,  and 
then  all  attempts  at  further  advance  were  aban- 
doned, and  the  British  troops  ran  back  to  their 


THE  BATTLE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS       147 

lines.  Another  assault  had  meanwhile  been  made 
by  a  column  close  to  the  river,  the  charging  sol- 
diers rushing  to  the  top  of  the  breastworks ;  but 
they  were  all  killed  or  driven  back.  A  body  of 
troops  had  also  been  sent  across  the  river,  where 
they  routed  a  small  detachment  of  Kentucky  mi- 
litia ;  but  they  were,  of  course,  recalled  when  the 
main  assault  failed. 

At  last  the  men  who  had  conquered  the  conquer- 
ors of  Europe  had  themselves  met  defeat.  Andrew 
Jackson  and  his  rough  riflemen  had  worsted,  in 
fair  fight,  a  far  larger  force  of  the  best  of  Wel- 
lington's veterans,  and  had  accomplished  what 
no  French  marshal  and  no  French  troops  had 
been  able  to  accomplish  throughout  the  long  war 
in  the  Spanish  peninsula.  For  a  week  the  sullen 
British  lay  in  their  lines ;  then,  abandoning  their 
heavy  artillery,  they  marched  back  to  the  ships 
and  sailed  for  Europe. 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS    AND    THE 
RIGHT    OF    PETITION 


He  rests  with  the  immortals  ;  his  journey  has  been  long : 
For  him  no  wail  of  sorrow,  but  a  paean  full  and  strong  ! 
So  well  and  bravely  has  he  done  the  work  he  found  to  do, 
To  justice,  freedom,  duty,  God,  and  man  forever  true. 

—  Whittier. 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS   AND   THE 
RIGHT    OF    PETITION 


THE  lot  of  ex-Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
as  a  rule,  has  been  a  life  of  extreme  retire- 
ment, but  to  this  rule  there  is  one  marked  ex- 
ception. When  John  Quincy  Adams  left  the 
White  House  in  March,  1829,  it  must  have  seemed 
as  if  public  life  could  hold  nothing  more  for  him. 
He  had  had  everything  apparently  that  an  Amer- 
ican statesman  could  hope  for.  He  had  been 
Minister  to  Holland  and  Prussia,  to  Russia  and 
England.  He  had  been  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States,  Secretary  of  State  for  eight  years,  and 
finally  President.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  this, 
the  greatest  part  of  his  career,  and  his  noblest  ser- 
vice to  his  country,  were  still  before  him  when  he 
gave  up  the  Presidency. 

In  the  following  year  (1830)  he  was  told  that 
he  might  be  elected  to  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  the  gentleman  who  made  the  proposition 
ventured  to  say  that  he  thought  an  ex- President, 
by  taking  such  a  position,  "  instead  of  degrading 


152       HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  individual  would  elevate  the  representative 
character."  Mr.  Adams  replied  that  he  had  "in 
that,  respect  no  scruples  whatever.  No  person 
can  be  degraded  by  serving  the  people  as  Repre- 
sentative in  Congress,  nor,  in  my  opinion,  would 
an  ex-President  of  the  United  States  be  degraded 
by  serving  as  a  selectman  of  his  town  if  elected 
thereto  by  the  people."  A  few  weeks  later  he 
was  chosen  to  the  House,  and  the  district  con- 
tinued to  send  him  every  two  years  from  that  time 
until  his  death.  He  did  much  excellent  work  in 
the  House,  and  was  conspicuous  in  more  than  one 
memorable  scene ;  but  here  it  is  possible  to  touch 
on  only  a  single  point,  where  he  came  forward  as 
the  champion  of  a  great  principle,  and  fought  a 
battle  for  the  right  which  will  always  be  remem- 
bered among  the  great  deeds  of  American  public 
men. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Adams  took  his  seat  in  Con- 
gress, the  movement  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
was  begun  by  a  few  obscure  agitators.  It  did 
not  at  first  attract  much  attention,  but  as  it  went 
on  it  gradually  exasperated  the  overbearing  tem- 
per of  the  Southern  slaveholders.  One  fruit  of 
this  agitation  was  the  appearance  of  petitions  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. A  few  were  presented  by  Mr.  Adams 
without  attracting  much  notice ;  but  as  the  pe- 
titions  multiplied,  the    Southern   representatives 


JOHN   OUINCY   ADAMS  153 

became  aroused.  They  assailed  Mr.  Adams  for 
presenting  them,  and  finally  passed  what  was 
known  as  the  gag  rule,  which  prevented  the  re- 
ception of  these  petitions  by  the  House.  Against 
this  rule  Mr.  Adams  protested,  in  the  midst  of  the 
loud  shouts  of  the  Southerners,  as  a  violation  of 
his  constitutional  rights.  But  the  tyranny  of  slav- 
ery at  that  time  was  so  complete  that  the  rule 
was  adopted  and  enforced,  and  the  slaveholders 
undertook  in  this  way  to  suppress  free  speech  in 
the  House,  just  as  they  also  undertook  to  prevent 
the  transmission  through  the  mails  of  any  writings 
adverse  to  slavery.  With  the  wisdom  of  a  states- 
man and  a  man  of  affairs,  Mr.  Adams  addressed 
himself  to  the  one  practical  point  of  the  contest. 
He  did  not  enter  upon  a  discussion  of  slavery  or 
of  its  abolition,  but  turned  his  whole  force  toward 
the  vindication  of  the  right  of  petition.  On  every 
petition  day  he  would  offer,  in  constantly  increas- 
ing numbers,  petitions  which  came  to  him  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
in  this  way  driving  the  Southern  representatives 
almost  to  madness,  despite  their  rule  which  pre- 
vented the  reception  of  such  documents  when 
offered.  Their  hatred  of  Mr.  Adams  is  something 
difficult  to  conceive,  and  they  were  burning  to 
break  him  down,  and,  if  possible,  drive  him  from 
the  House.  On  February  6,  1837,  after  present- 
ing the  usual  petitions,  Mr.  Adams  offered  one 


154      HERO    TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

upon  which  he  said  he  should  like  the  judgment 
of  the  Speaker  as  to  its  propriety,  inasmuch  as  it 
was  a  petition  from  slaves.  In  a  moment  the 
House  was  in  a  tumult,  and  loud  cries  of  "  Expel 
him  !  "  "  Expel  him  !  "  rose  in  all  directions.  One 
resolution  after  another  was  offered  looking  to- 
ward his  expulsion  or  censure,  and  it  was  not  until 
February  9,  three  days  later,  that  he  was  able  to 
take  the  floor  in  his  own  defense.  His  speech 
was  a  masterpiece  of  argument,  invective,  and 
sarcasm.  He  showed,  among  other  things,  that 
he  had  not  offered  the  petition,  but  had  only  asked 
the  opinion  of  the  Speaker  upon  it,  and  that  the 
petition  itself  prayed  that  slavery  should  not  be 
abolished.  When  he  closed  his  speech,  which 
was  quite  as  savage  as  any  made  against  him,  and 
infinitely  abler,  no  one  desired  to  reply,  and  the 
idea  of  censuring  him  was  dropped. 

The  greatest  struggle,  however,  came  five  years 
later,  when,  on  January  21,  1842,  Mr.  Adams  pre- 
sented the  petition  of  certain  citizens  of  Haver- 
hill, Massachusetts,  praying  for  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  on  account  of  slavery.  His  enemies 
felt  that  now,  at  last,  he  had  delivered  himself 
into  their  hands.  Again  arose  the  cry  for  his  ex- 
pulsion, and  again  vituperation  was  poured  out 
upon  him,  and  resolutions  to  expel  him  freely  in- 
troduced. When  he  got  the  floor  to  speak  in  his 
own  defense,  he  faced  an  excited   House,  almost 


■■■■ppiliR 


JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS. 


JOHN   OUINCY   ADAMS  157 

unanimously  hostile  to  him,  and  possessing,  as  he 
well  knew,  both  the  will  and  the  power  to  drive 
him  from  its  walls.  But  there  was  no  wavering 
in  Mr.  Adams.  "  If  they  say  they  will  try  me," 
he  said,  "  they  must  try  me.  If  they  say  they 
will  punish  me,  they  must  punish  me.  But  if  they 
say  that  in  peace  and  mercy  they  will  spare  me 
expulsion,  I  disdain  and  cast  away  their  mercy, 
and  I  ask  if  they  will  come  to  such  a  trial  and 
expel  me.  I  defy  them.  I  have  constituents  to 
go  to,  and  they  will  have  something  to  say  if  this 
House  expels  me,  nor  will  it  be  long  before  the 
gentlemen  will  see  me  here  again."  The  fight 
went  on  for  nearly  a  fortnight,  and  on  February  7 
the  whole  subject  was  finally  laid  on  the  table. 
The  sturdy,  dogged  fighter,  single-handed  and 
alone,  had  beaten  all  the  forces  of  the  South  and 
of  slavery.  No  more  memorable  fight  has  ever 
been  made  by  one  man  in  a  parliamentary  body, 
and  after  this  decisive  struggle  the  tide  began  to 
turn.  Every  year  Mr.  Adams  renewed  his  motion 
to  strike  out  the  gag  rule,  and  forced  it  to  a  vote. 
Gradually  the  majority  against  it  dwindled,  until 
at  last,  on  December  3,  1844,  his  motion  pre- 
vailed. Freedom  of  speech  had  been  vindicated 
in  the  American  House  of  Representatives,  the 
right  of  petition  had  been  won,  and  the  first  great 
blow  against  the  slave  power  had  been  struck. 
Four  years  later  Mr.  Adams  fell,  stricken  with 


158       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

paralysis,  at  his  place  in  the  House,  and  a  few 
hours  afterward,  with  the  words,  "  This  is  the  last 
of  earth  ;  I  am  content,"  upon  his  lips,  he  sank  into 
unconsciousness  and  died.  It  was  a  fit  end  to  a 
great  public  career.  His  fight  for  the  right  of 
petition  is  one  to  be  studied  and  remembered,  and 
Mr.  Adams  made  it  practically  alone.  The  slave- 
holders of  the  South  and  the  representatives  of 
the  North  were  alike  against  him.  Against  him, 
too,  as  his  biographer,  Mr.  Morse,  says,  was  the 
class  in  Boston  to  which  he  naturally  belonged  by 
birth  and  education.  He  had  to  encounter  the 
bitter  resistance  in  his  own  set  of  the  "  conscience- 
less respectability  of  wealth,"  but  the  great  body 
of  the  New  England  people  were  with  him,  as  were 
the  voters  of  his  own  district.  He  was  an  old 
man,  with  the  physical  infirmities  of  age.  His  eyes 
were  weak  and  streaming;  his  hands  were  trem- 
bling ;  his  voice  cracked  in  moments  of  excite- 
ment ;  yet  in  that  age  of  oratory,  in  the  days  of 
Webster  and  Clay,  he  was  known  as  the  "  old  man 
eloquent."  It  was  what  he  said,  more  than  the 
way  he  said  it,  which  told.  His  vigorous  mind 
never  worked  more  surely  and  clearly  than  when 
he  stood  alone  in  the  midst  of  an  angry  House, 
the  target  of  their  hatred  and  abuse.  His  aro-u- 
ments  were  strong,  and  his  large  knowledge  and 
wide  experience  supplied  him  with  every  weapon 
for  defense  and  attack.      Beneath  the  lash  of  his 


JOHN   QUINCY   ADAMS  159 

invective  and  his  sarcasm  the  hottest  of  the  slave- 
holders cowered  away.  He  set  his  back  against 
a  great  principle.  He  never  retreated  an  inch, 
he  never  yielded,  he  never  conciliated,  he  was  al- 
ways an  assailant,  and  no  man  and  no  body  of  men 
had  the  power  to  turn  him.  He  had  his  dark 
hours,  he  felt  bitterly  the  isolation  of  his  position, 
but  he  never  swerved.  He  had  good  right  to  set 
down  in  his  diary,  when  the  gag  rule  was  repealed, 
"  Blessed,  forever  blessed,  be  the  name  of  God." 


FRANCIS    PARKMAN 


H.e  told  the  red  man's  story ;  far  and  wide 
He  searched  the  unwritten  annals  of  his  race  ; 

He  sat  a  listener  at  the  Sachem's  side, 

He  tracked  the  hunter  through  his  wild-wood  chase. 

High  o'er  his  head  the  soaring  eagle  screamed  ; 

The  wolf's  long  howl  rang  nightly  ;   through  the  vale 
Tramped  the  lone  bear;   the  panther's  eyeballs  gleamed; 

The  bison's  gallop  thundered  on  the  gale. 

Soon  o'er  the  horizon  rose  the  cloud  of  strife, 

Two  proud,  strong  nations  battling  for  the  prize: 

Which  swarming  host  should  mould  a  nation's  life  ; 
Which  royal  banner  flout  the  western  skies. 

Long  raged  the  conflict ;   on  the  crimson  "sod 
Native  and  alien  joined  their  hosts  in  vain  ; 

The  lilies  withered  where  the  lion  trod, 

Till  Peace  lay  panting  on  the  ravaged  plain. 

A  nobler  task  was  theirs  who  strove  to  win 

The  blood-stained  heathen  to  the  Christian  fold ; 

To  free  from  Satan's  clutch  the  slaves  of  sin ; 
These  labors,  too,  with  loving  grace  he  told. 

Halting  with  feeble  step,  or  bending  o'er 

The  sweet-breathed  roses  which  he  loved  so  well, 

While  through  long  years  his  burdening  cross  he  bore, 
From  those  firm  lips  no  coward  accents  fell. 

A  brave  bright  memory  !  His  the  stainless  shield 

No  shame  defaces  and  no  envy  mars  ! 
When  our  far  future's  record  is  unsealed, 

His  name  will  shine  among  its  morning  stars. 

— Holmes. 


FRANCIS    PARKMAN 

(1822-1893) 

THE  stories  in  this  volume  deal,  for  the  most 
part,  with  single  actions,  generally  with  deeds 
of  war  and  feats  of  arms.  In  this  one  I  desire  to 
give  if  possible  the  impression,  for  it  can  be  no 
more  than  an  impression,  of  a  life  which  in  its  con- 
flicts and  its  victories  manifested  throughout  heroic 
qualities.  Such  qualities  can  be  shown  in  many 
ways,  and  the  field  of  battle  is  only  one  of  the 
fields  of  human  endeavor  where  heroism  can  be 
displayed. 

Francis  Parkman  was  born  in  Boston  on  Sep- 
tember^, 1822.  He  came  of  a  well-known  family, 
and  was  of  a  good  Puritan  stock.  He  was  rather 
a  delicate  boy,  with  an  extremely  active  mind  and 
of  a  highly  sensitive,  nervous  organization.  Into 
everything  that  attracted  him  he  threw  himself 
with  feverish  energy.  His  first  passion,  when  he 
was  only  about  twelve  years  old,  was  for  chemistry, 
and  his  eager  boyish  experiments  in  this  direction 
were  undoubtedly  injurious  to  his  health.  The 
interest  in  chemistry  was  succeeded  by  a  passion 

for  the  woods  and  the  wilderness,  and  out  of  this 

163 


1 64      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

came  the  longing  to  write  the  history  of  the  men 
of  the  wilderness,  and  of  the  great  struggle  be- 
tween France  and  England  for  the  control  of  the 
North  American  continent.  All  through  his  col- 
lege  career  this  desire  was  with  him,  and  while  in 
secret  he  was  reading  widely  to  prepare  himself 
for  his  task,  he  also  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in 
the  forests  and  on  the  mountains.  To  quote  his 
own  words,  he  was  "  fond  of  hardships,  and  he  was 
vain  of  enduring  them,  chenshino-  a  sovereign 
scorn  for  every  physical  weakness  or  defect ;  but 
deceived,  moreover,  by  the  rapid  development  of 
frame  and  sinew,  which  flattered  him  into  the  be- 
lief that  discipline  sufficiently  unsparing  would 
harden  him  into  an  athlete,  he  slighted  the  pre- 
cautions of  a  more  reasonable  woodcraft,  tired  old 
foresters  with  long  marches,  stopped  neither  for 
heat  nor  for  rain,  and  slept  on  the  earth  without 
blankets."  The  result  was  that  his  intense  energy 
carried  him  beyond  his  strength,  and  while  his 
muscles  strengthened  and  hardened,  his  sensitive 
nervous  organization  began  to  give  way.  It  was 
not  merely  because  he  led  an  active  outdoor  life. 
He  himself  protests  against  any  such  conclusion, 
and  says  that  "  if  any  pale  student  glued  to  his 
desk  here  seek  an  apology  for  a  way  of  life  whose 
natural  fruit  is  that  pallid  and  emasculate  scholar- 
ship, of  which  New  England  has  had  too  many 
examples,  it  will  be  far  better  that  this  sketch  had 


FRANCIS    PARK 


FRANCIS   PARKMAN  167 

not  been  written.  For  the  student  there  is,  in  its 
season,  no  better  place  than  the  saddle,  and  no 
better  companion  than  the  rifle  or  the  oar." 

The  evil  that  was  done  was  due  to  Parkman's 
highly  irritable  organism,  which  spurred  him  to 
excess  in  everything  he  undertook.  The  first 
special  sign  of  the  mischief  he  was  doing  to  him- 
self and  his  health  appeared  in  a  weakness  of  sight. 
It  was  essential  to  his  plan  of  historical  work  to 
study  not  only  books  and  records  but  Indian  life 
from  the  inside.  Therefore,  having  graduated  from 
college  and  the  law-school,  he  felt  that  the  time 
had  come  for  this  investigation,  which  would  enable 
him  to  gather  material  for  his  history  and  at  the 
same  time  to  rest  his  eyes.  He  went  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  after  great  hardships,  living  in  the 
saddle,  as  he  said,  with  weakness  and  pain,  he 
joined  a  band  of  Ogallalla  Indians.  With  them 
he  remained  despite  his  physical  suffering,  and  from 
them  he  learned,  as  he  could  not  have  learned  in 
any  other  way,  what  Indian  life  really  was. 

The  immediate  result  of  the  journey  was  his 
first  book,  instinct  with  the  freshness  and  wild- 
ness  of  the  mountains  and  the  prairies,  and  called 
by  him  "  The  Oregon  Trail."  Unfortunately,  the 
book  was  not  the  only  outcome.  The  illness  in- 
curred during  his  journey  from  fatigue  and  ex- 
posure was  followed  by  other  disorders.  The 
light  of  the  sun  became  insupportable,  and  his  ner- 


168       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

vous  system  was  entirely  deranged.  His  sight 
was  now  so  impaired  that  he  was  almost  blind, 
and  could  neither  read  nor  write.  It  was  a  terri- 
ble prospect  for  a  brilliant  and  ambitious  man, 
but  Parkman  faced  it  unflinchingly.  He  devised 
a  frame  by  which  he  could  write  with  closed  eyes, 
and  books  and  manuscripts  were  read  to  him.  In 
this  way  he  began  the  history  of  "  The  Conspi- 
racy of  Pontiac,"  and  for  the  first  half-year  the 
rate  of  composition  covered  about  six  lines  a  day. 
His  courage  was  rewarded  by  an  improvement 
in  his  health,  and  a  little  more  quiet  in  nerves 
and  brain.  In  two  and  a  half  years  he  managed 
to  complete  the  book. 

He  then  entered  upon  his  great  subject  of 
"  France  in  the  New  World."  The  material  was 
mostly  in  manuscript,  and  had  to  be  examined, 
gathered,  and  selected  in  Europe  and  in  Canada. 
He  could  not  read,  he  could  write  only  a  very 
little  and  that  with  difficulty,  and  yet  he  pressed 
on.  He  slowly  collected  his  material  and  digested 
and  arranged  it,  using  the  eyes  of  others  to  do 
that  which  he  could  not  do  himself,  and  always 
on  the  verge  of  a  complete  breakdown  of  mind 
and  body.  In  1851  he  had  an  effusion  of  water 
on  the  left  knee,  which  stopped  his  outdoor  exer- 
cise, on  which  he  had  always  largely  depended. 
All  the  irritability  of  the  system  then  centered  in 
the  head,  resulting  in  intense  pain  and  in  a  rest- 
less and  devouring  activity  of  thought.     He  him- 


FRANCIS    PARKMAN  169 

self  says:  "The  whirl,  the  confusion,  and  strange, 
undefined  tortures  attending  this  condition  are 
only  to  be  conceived  by  one  who  has  felt  them." 
The  resources  of  surgery  and  medicine  were  ex- 
hausted in  vain.  The  trouble  in  the  head  and 
eyes  constantly  recurred.  In  1858  there  came  a 
period  when  for  four  years  he  was  incapable  of 
the  slightest  mental  application,  and  the  attacks 
varied  in  duration  from  four  hours  to  as  many 
months.  When  the  pressure  was  lightened  a 
little  he  went  back  to  his  work.  When  work  was 
impossible,  he  turned  to  horticulture,  grew  roses, 
and  wrote  a  book  about  the  cultivation  of  those 
flowers  which  is  a  standard  authority. 

As  he  grew  older  the  attacks  moderated,  al- 
though they  never  departed.  Sleeplessness  pur- 
sued him  always,  the  slightest  excitement  would 
deprive  him  of  the  power  of  exertion,  his  sight 
was  always  sensitive,  and  at  times  he  was  bor- 
dering on  blindness.  In  this  hard-pressed  way 
he  fought  the  battle  of  life.  He  says  himself 
that  his  books  took  four  times  as  long  to  prepare 
and  write  as  if  he  had  been  strong"  and  able 
to  use  his  faculties.  That  this  should  have  been 
the  case  is  little  wonder,  for  those  books  came 
into  being  with  failing  sight  and  shattered  nerves, 
with  sleeplessness  and  pain,  and  the  menace  of 
insanity  ever  hanging  over  the  brave  man  who, 
nevertheless,  carried  them  through  to  an  end. 

Yet   the    result  of  those   fifty  years,   even   in 


170     HERO    TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

amount,  is  a  noble  one,  and  would  have  been 
great  achievement  for  a  man  who  had  never 
known  a  sick  day.  In  quality,  and  subject,  and 
method  of  narration,  they  leave  little  to  be  desired. 
There,  in  Parkman's  volumes,  is  told  vividly, 
strongly,  and  truthfully,  the  history  of  the  great 
struggle  between  France  and  England  for  the 
mastery  of  the  North  American  continent,  one 
of  the  most  important  events  of  modern  times. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  give  any  critical  estimate 
of  Mr.  Parkman's  work.  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
it  stands  in  the  front  rank.  It  is  a  great  contri- 
bution to  history,  and  a  still  greater  gift  to  the 
literature  of  this  country.  All  Americans  cer- 
tainly should  read  the  volumes  in  which  Parkman 
has  told  that  wonderful  story  of  hardship  and 
adventure,  of  fighting  and  of  statesmanship,  which 
gave  this  great  continent  to  the  English  race  and 
the  English  speech.  But  better  than  the  liter- 
ature or  the  history  is  the  heroic  spirit  of  the  man, 
which  triumphed  over  pain  and  all  other  physical 
obstacles,  and  brought  a  work  of  such  value  to  his 
country  and  his  time  into  existence.  There  is  a 
great  lesson  as  well  as  a  lofty  example  in  such  a 
career,  and  in  the  service  which  such  a  man  ren- 
dered by  his  life  and  work  to  literature  and  to  his 
country.  On  the  tomb  of  the  conqueror  of  Que- 
bec it  is  written  :  "  Here  lies  Wolfe  victorious." 
The  same  epitaph  might  with  entire  justice  be 
carved  above  the  grave  of  Wolfe's  historian. 


"REMEMBER   THE   ALAMO" 


The  muffled  drum's  sad  roll  has  beat 

The  soldier's  last  tattoo  ; 
No  more  on  life's  parade  shall  meet 

That  brave  and  fallen  few. 
On  fame's  eternal  camping-ground 

Their  silent  tents  are  spread, 
And  glory  guards  with  solemn  round 

The  bivouac  of  the  dead. 

The  neighing  troop,  the  flashing  blade, 

The  bugle's  stirring  blast, 
The  charge,  the  dreadful  cannonade, 

The  din  and  shout  are  past ; 
Nor  war's  wild  note,  nor  glory's  peal 

Shall  thrill  with  fierce  delight 
Those  breasts  that  never  more  may  feel 

The  rapture  of  the  fight. 

—  Theodore  O^Hara. 


"REMEMBER  THE  ALAMO" 

THERMOPYLAE  had  its  messengers  of 
death,  but  the  Alamo  had  none."  These 
were  the  words  with  which  a  United  States  sena- 
tor referred  to  one  of  the  most  resolute  and  ef- 
fective fights  ever  waged  by  brave  men  against 
overwhelming  odds  in  the  face  of  certain  death. 
Soon  after  the  close  of  the  second  war  with 
Great  Britain,  parties  of  American  settlers  began 
to  press  forward  into  the  rich,  sparsely  settled 
territory  of  Texas,  then  a  portion  of  Mexico.  At 
first  these  immigrants  were  well  received,  but  the 
Mexicans  speedily  grew  jealous  of  them,  and  op- 
pressed them  in  various  ways.  In  consequence, 
when  the  settlers  felt  themselves  strong  enough, 
they  revolted  against  Mexican  rule,  and  declared 
Texas  to  be  an  independent  republic.  Immedi- 
ately Santa  Anna,  the  Dictator  of  Mexico,  gath- 
ered a  large  army,  and  invaded  Texas.  The 
slender  forces  of  the  settlers  were  unable  to  meet 
his  hosts.  They  were  pressed  back  by  the  Mex- 
icans, and  dreadful  atrocities  were  committed  by 
Santa  Anna  and  his  lieutenants. 


174       HERO   TALES    FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

In  the  United  States  there  was  great  enthusiasm 
for  the  struggling  Texans,  and  many  bold  back- 
woodsmen and  Indian-fighters  swarmed  to  their 
help.  Among  them  the  two  most  famous  were 
Sam  Houston  and  David  Crockett.  Houston 
was  the  younger  man,  and  had  already  led  an  ex- 
traordinary and  varied  career.  When  a  mere  lad 
he  had  run  away  from  home  and  joined  the  Cher- 
okees,  living  among  them  for  some  years  ;  then 
he  returned  home.  He  had  fought  under  Andrew 
Jackson  in  his  campaigns  against  the  Creeks,  and 
had  been  severely  wounded  at  the  battle  of  the 
Horse-shoe  Bend.  He  had  risen  to  the  highest 
political  honors  in  his  State,  becoming  governor 
of  Tennessee  ;  and  then  suddenly,  in  a  lit  of  moody 
longing  for  the  life  of  the  wilderness,  he  gave  up 
his  governorship,  left  the  State,  and  crossed  the 
Mississippi,  going  to  join  his  old  comrades,  the 
Cherokees,  in  their  new  home  along  the  waters 
of  the  Arkansas.  Here  he  dressed,  lived,  fought, 
hunted,  and  drank  precisely  like  any  Indian, 
becoming  one  of  the  chiefs. 

David  Crockett  was  born  soon  after  the  Revo- 
lutionary War.  He,  too,  had  taken  part  under 
Jackson  in  the  campaigns  against  the  Creeks,  and 
had  afterward  become  a  man  of  mark  in  Tennes- 
see, and  gone  to  Congress  as  a  Whig ;  but  he 
had  quarreled  with  Jackson,  and  been  beaten  for 
Congress,  and  in  his  disgust  he  left  the  State  and 


'•REMEMBER    THE   ALAMO"  175 

decided  to  join  the  Texans.  He  was  the  most 
famous  rifle-shot  in  all  the  United  States,  and  the 
most  successful  hunter,  so  that  his  skill  was  a 
proverb  all  along  the  border. 

David  Crockett  journeyed  south,  by  boat  and 
horse,  making  his  way  steadily  toward  the  distant 
plains  where  the  Texans  were  waging  their  life- 
and-death  fight.  Texas  was  a  wild  place  in  those 
days,  and  the  old  hunter  had  more  than  one  hair- 
breadth escape  from  Indians,  desperadoes,  and 
savage  beasts,  ere  he  got  to  the  neighborhood  of 
San  Antonio,  and  joined  another  adventurer,  a 
bee-hunter,  bent  on  the  same  errand  as  himself. 
The  two  had  been  in  ignorance  of  exactly  what 
the  situation  in  Texas  was  ;  but  they  soon  found 
that  the  Mexican  army  was  marching  toward 
San  Antonio,  whither  they  were  going.  Near  the 
town  was  an  old  Spanish  fort,  the  Alamo,  in  which 
the  hundred  and  fifty  American  defenders  of  the 
place  had  gathered.  Santa  Anna  had  four  thou- 
sand troops  with  him.  The  Alamo  was  a  mere 
shell,  utterly  unable  to  withstand  either  a  bom- 
bardment or  a  regular  assault.  It  was  evident, 
therefore,  that  those  within  it  would  be  in  the  ut- 
most jeopardy  if  the  place  were  seriously  assaulted, 
but  old  Crockett  and  his  companion  never  wav- 
ered. They  were  fearless  and  resolute,  and 
masters  of  woodcraft,  and  they  managed  to  slip 
through  the  Mexican  lines  and  join  the  defenders 


176      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

within  the  walls.  The  bravest,  the  hardiest,  the 
most  reckless  men  of  the  border  were  there  ;  among 
them  were  Colonel  Travis,  the  commander  of  the 
fort,  and. Bowie,  the  inventor  of  the  famous  bowie- 
knife.  They  were  a  wild  and  ill-disciplined  band, 
little  used  to  restraint  or  control,  but  they  were 
men  of  iron  courage  and  great  bodily  powers, 
skilled  in  the  use  of  their  weapons,  and  ready  to 
meet  with  stern  and  uncomplaining  indifference 
whatever  doom  fate  might  have  in  store  for  them. 
Soon  Santa  Anna  approached  with  his  army, 
took  possession  of  the  town,  and  besieged  the 
fort.  The  defenders  knew  there  was  scarcely  a 
chance  of  rescue,  and  that  it  was  hopeless  to 
expect  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  behind 
defenses  so  weak,  could  beat  off  four  thousand 
trained  soldiers,  well  armed  and  provided  with 
heavy  artillery ;  but  they  had  no  idea  of  flinch- 
ing, and  made  a  desperate  defense.  The  days 
went  by,  and  no  help  came,  while  Santa  Anna 
got  ready  his  lines,  and  began  a  furious  cannon- 
ade. His  gunners  were  unskilled,  however,  and 
he  had  to  serve  the  guns  from  a  distance  ;  for 
when  they  were  pushed  nearer,  the  American  ri- 
flemen crept  forward  under  cover,  and  picked  off 
the  artillerymen.  Old  Crockett  thus  killed  five 
men  at  one  gun.  But,  by  degrees,  the  bombard- 
ment told.  The  walls  of  the  Alamo  were  battered 
and  riddled  ;   and  when  they  had  been  breached 


"REMEMBER   THE   ALAMO"  179 

so  as  to  afford  no  obstacle  to  the  rush  of  his 
soldiers,  Santa  Anna  commanded  that  they  be 
stormed. 

The  storm  took  place  on  March  6,  1836.  The 
Mexican  troops  came  on  well  and  steadily,  break- 
ing through  the  outer  defenses  at  every  point, 
for  the  lines  were  too  long  to  be  manned  by  the 
few  Americans.  The  frontiersmen  then  retreated 
to  the  inner  building,  and  a  desperate  hand-to- 
hand  conflict  followed,  the  Mexicans  thronging 
in,  shooting  the  Americans  with  their  muskets, 
and  thrusting  at  them  with  lance  and  bayonet, 
while  the  Americans,  after  firing  their  long  rifles, 
clubbed  them,  and  fought  desperately,  one  against 
many  ;  and  they  also  used  their  bowie-knives  and 
revolvers  with  deadly  effect.  The  fight  reeled  to 
and  fro  between  the  shattered  walls,  each  Amer- 
ican the  center  of  a  group  of  foes ;  but,  for  all 
their  strength  and  their  wild  fighting  courage,  the 
defenders  were  too  few,  and  the  struggle  could 
have  but  one  end.  One  by  one  the  tall  riflemen 
succumbed,  after  repeated  thrusts  with  bayonet 
and  lance,  until  but  three  or  four  were  left.  Col- 
onel Travis,  the  commander,  was  among  them ; 
and  so  was  Bowie,  who  was  sick  and  weak  from 
a  wasting  disease,  but  who  rallied  all  his  strength 
to  die  fighting,  and  who,  in  the  final  struggle, 
slew  several  Mexicans  with  his  revolver,  and  with 
his  big  knife,  of  the  kind  to  which  he  had  given 


180       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

his  name.  Then  these  fell  too,  and  the  last  man 
stood  at  bay.  It  was  old  Davy  Crockett.  Wounded 
in  a  dozen  places,  he  faced  his  foes  with  his  back 
to  the  wall,  ringed  around  by  the  bodies  of  the 
men  he  had  slain.  So  desperate  was  the  fight  he 
waged,  that  the  Mexicans  who  thronged  round 
about  him  were  beaten  back  for  the  moment,  and 
no  one  dared  to  run  in  upon  him.  Accordingly, 
while  the  lancers  held  him  where  he  was,  for, 
weakened  by  wounds  and  loss  of  blood,  he  could 
not  break  through  them,  the  musketeers  loaded 
their  carbines  and  shot  him  down.  Santa  Anna 
declined  to  give  him  mercy.  Some  say  that  when 
Crockett  fell  from  his  wounds,  he  was  taken  alive, 
and  was  then  shot  by  Santa  Anna's  order;  but  his 
fate  cannot  be  told  with  certainty,  for  not  a  single 
American  was  left  alive.  At  any  rate,  after 
Crockett  fell  the  fight  was  over.  Every  one  of 
the  hardy  men  who  had  held  the  Alamo  lay  still 
in  death.  Yet  they  died  well  avenged,  for  four 
times  their  number  fell  at  their  hands  in  the  battle. 
Santa  Anna  had  but  a  short  while  in  which  to 
exult  over  his  bloody  and  hard-won  victory.  Al- 
ready a  rider  from  the  rolling  Texas  plains,  going 
north  through  the  Indian  Territory,  had  told 
Houston  that  the  Texans  were  up  and  were  striv- 
ing for  their  liberty.  At  once  in  Houston's  mind 
there  kindled  a  longing  to  return  to  the  men  of 
his  race  at  the  time  of  their  need.      Mounting  his 


"REMEMBER    THE   ALAMO"  181 

horse,  he  rode  south  by  night  and  day,  and  was 
hailed  by  the  Texans  as  a  heaven-sent  leader. 
He  took  command  of  their  forces,  eleven  hundred 
stark  riflemen,  and  at  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto, 
he  and  his  men  charged  the  Mexican  hosts  with 
the  cry  of  "  Remember  the  Alamo."  Almost  im- 
mediately, the  Mexicans  were  overthrown  with 
terrible  slaughter  ;  Santa  Anna  himself  was  cap- 
tured, and  the  freedom  of  Texas  was  won  at  a 
blow. 


HAMPTON    ROADS 


Then  far  away  to  the  south  uprose 

A  little  feather  of  snow-white  smoke, 
And  we  knew  that  the  iron  ship  of  our  foes 
Was  steadily  steering  its  course 
To  try  the  force 
Of  our  ribs  of  oak. 

Down  upon  us  heavily  runs, 

Silent  and  sullen,  the  floating  fort; 
Then  comes  a  puff  of  smoke  from  her  guns, 
And  leaps  the  terrible  death, 
With  fiery  breath, 
From  her  open  port. 

Ho  !  brave  hearts,  that  went  down  in  the  seas  ! 

Ye  are  at  peace  in  the  troubled  stream ; 
Ho  !  brave  land  !  with  hearts  like  these, 
Thy  flag,  that  is  rent  in  twain, 
Shall  be  one  again, 
And  without  a  seam  ! 

— Longfellow. 


HAMPTON    ROADS 

THE  naval  battles  of  the  Civil  War  possess  an 
immense  importance,  because  they  mark 
the  line  of  cleavage  between  naval  warfare  under 
the  old,  and  naval  warfare  under  the  new,  condi- 
tions. The  ships  with  which  Hull  and  Decatur 
and  McDonough  won  glory  in  the  war  of  1812 
were  essentially  like  those  with  which  Drake  and 
Hawkins  and  Frobisher  had  harried  the  Spanish 
armadas  two  centuries  and  a  half  earlier.  They 
were  wooden  sailing-vessels,  carrying  many  guns 
mounted  in  broadside,  like  those  of  De  Ruyter 
and  Tromp,  of  Blake  and  Nelson.  Throughout 
this  period  all  the  great  admirals,  all  the  famous 
single-ship  fighters, — whose  skill  reached  its  high- 
est expression  in  our  own  navy  during  the  war  of 
181 2, —  commanded  craft  built  and  armed  in  a 
substantially  similar  manner,  and  fought  with  the 
same  weapons  and  under  much  the  same  condi- 
tions. But  in  the  Civil  War  weapons  and  methods 
were  introduced  which  caused  a  revolution  greater 
even  than  that  which  divided  the  sailing-ship  from 
the  galley.    The  use  of  steam,  the  casing  of  ships 


1 86      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

in  iron  armor,  and  the  employment  of  the  tor- 
pedo, the  ram,  and  the  gun  of  high  power,  pro- 
duced such  radically  new  types  that  the  old  ships 
of  the  line  became  at  one  stroke  as  antiquated  as 
the  galleys  of  Hamilcar  or  Alcibiades.  Some  of 
these  new  engines  of  destruction  were  invented, 
and  all  were  for  the  first  time  tried  in  actual  com- 
bat, during  our  own  Civil  War.  The  first  occasion 
on  which  any  of  the  new  methods  were  thoroughly 
tested  was  attended  by  incidents  which  made  it 
one  of  the  most  striking  of  naval  battles. 

In  Chesapeake  Bay,  near  Hampton  Roads, 
the  United  States  had  collected  a  fleet  of  wooden 
ships ;  some  of  them  old-style  sailing-vessels, 
others  steamers.  The  Confederates  were  known 
to  be  building  a  great  iron-clad  ram,  and  the 
wooden  vessels  were  eagerly  watching  for  her  ap- 
pearance when  she  should  come  out  of  Gosport 
Harbor.  Her  powers  and  capacity  were  utterly 
unknown.  She  was  made  out  of  the  former 
United  States  steam -frigate  Merrimac,  cut  down 
so  as  to  make  her  fore  and  aft  decks  nearly  flat, 
and  not  much  above  the  water,  while  the  guns 
were  mounted  in  a  covered  central  battery,  with 
sloping  flanks.  Her  sides,  deck,  and  battery  were 
coated  with  iron,  and  she  was  armed  with  for- 
midable rifle-guns,  and,  most  important  of  all,  with 
a  steel  ram  thrust  out  under  water  forward  from 


HAMPTON   ROADS  187 

her  bow.  She  was  commanded  by  a  gallant  and 
efficient  officer,  Captain  Buchanan. 

It  was  March  8,  1862,  when  the  ram  at  last 
made  her  appearance  within  sight  of  the  Union 
fleet.  The  day  was  calm  and  very  clear,  so  that 
the  throngs  of  spectators  on  shore  could  see  every 
feature  of  the  battle.  With  the  great  ram  came 
three  light  gunboats,  all  of  which  took  part  in  the 
action,  harassing  the  vessels  which  she  assailed ; 
but  they  were  not  factors  of  importance  in  the 
fight.  On  the  Union  side  the  vessels  nearest 
were  the  sailing-ships  Cumberland  and  Congress, 
and  the  steam-frigate  Minnesota.  The  Congress 
and  Cumberland  were  anchored  not  far  from  each 
other  ;  the  Minnesota  got  aground,  and  was  some 
distance  off.  Owing  to  the  currents  and  shoals 
and  the  lack  of  wind,  no  other  vessel  was  able  to 
get  up  in  time  to  take  a  part  in  the  fight. 

As  soon  as  the  ram  appeared,  out  of  the  har- 
bor, she  turned  and  steamed  toward  the  Congress 
and  the  Cumberland,  the  black  smoke  rising  from 
her  funnels,  and  the  great  ripples  running  from 
each  side  of  her  iron  prow  as  she  drove  steadily 
through  the  still  waters.  On  board  of  the  Con- 
gress and  Cumberland  there  was  eager  anticipa- 
tion, but  not  a  particle  of  fear.  The  officers  in 
command,  Captain  Smith  and  Lieutenant  Morris, 
were  two  of  the  most  gallant  men  in  a  service 
where  gallantry  has  always  been  too  common  to 


188       HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

need  special  comment.  The  crews  were  com- 
posed of  veterans,  well  trained,  self-confident,  and 
proud  beyond  measure  of  the  flag  whose  honor 
they  upheld.  The  guns  were  run  out,  and  the 
men  stood  at  quarters,  while  the  officers  eagerly 
conned  the  approaching  ironclad.  The  Congress 
was  the  first  to  open  fire  ;  and,  as  her  volleys  flew, 
the  men  on  the  Cumberland  were  astounded  to 
see  the  cannon-shot  bound  off  the  sloping  sides 
of  the  ram  as  hailstones  bound  from  a  window- 
pane.  The  ram  answered,  and  her  rifle-shells 
tore  the  sides  of  the  Congress ;  but  for  her  first 
victim  she  aimed  at  the  Cumberland,  and,  firing 
her  bow  guns,  came  straight  as  an  arrow  at  the 
little  sloop-of-war,  which  lay  broadside  to  her, 
It  was  an  absolutely  hopeless  struggle.  The 
Cumberland  was  a  sailing-ship,  at  anchor,  with 
wooden  sides,  and  a  battery  of  light  guns. 
Against  the  formidable  steam  ironclad,  with  her 
heavy  rifles  and  steel  ram,  she  was  as  powerless 
as  if  she  had  been  a  rowboat ;  and  from  the  mo- 
ment the  men  saw  the  cannon-shot  bound  from 
the  ram's  sides  they  knew  they  were  doomed. 
But  none  of  them  flinched.  Once  and  again  they 
fired  their  guns  full  against  the  approaching  ram, 
and  in  response  received  a  few  shells  from  the 
great  bow-rifles  of  the  latter.  Then,  forp-ino- 
ahead,  the  Merrimac  struck  her  antagonist  with 
her  steel  prow,  and  the  sloop-of-war  reeled  and 


HAMPTON   ROADS  191 

shuddered,  and  through  the  great  rent  in  her  side 
the  black  water  rushed.  She  foundered  in  a  few 
minutes ;  but  her  crew  fought  her  to  the  last, 
cheering  as  they  ran  out  the  guns,  and  sending 
shot  after  shot  against  the  ram  as  the  latter 
backed  off  after  delivering  her  blow.  The  rush 
of  the  water  soon  swamped  the  lower  decks,  but 
the  men  above  continued  to  serve  their  guns  until 
the  upper  deck  also  was  awash,  and  the  vessel 
had  not  ten  seconds  of  life  left.  Then,  with  her 
flags  flying,  her  men  cheering,  and  her  guns 
firing,  the  Cumberland  sank.  It  was  shallow 
where  she  settled  down,  so  that  her  masts  re- 
mained above  the  water.  The  glorious  flag  for 
which  the  brave  men  aboard  her  had  died  flew 
proudly  in  the  wind  all  that  day,  while  the  fight 
went  on,  and  throughout  the  night ;  and  next 
morning  it  was  still  streaming  over  the  beautiful 
bay,  to  mark  the  resting-place  of  as  gallant  a  ves- 
sel as  ever  sailed  or  fought  on  the  high  seas. 

After  the  Cumberland  sank,  the  ram  turned 
her  attention  to  the  Congress.  Finding  it  diffi- 
cult to  get  to  her  in  the  shoal  water,  she  began 
to  knock  her  to  pieces  with  her  great  rifle-guns. 
The  unequal  fight  between  the  ironclad  and  the 
wooden  ship  lasted  for  perhaps  half  an  hour.  By 
that  time  the  commander  of  the  Congress  had 
been  killed,  and  her  decks  looked  like  a  slaughter- 
house.     She  was  utterly  unable  to  make  any  im- 


192       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

pression  on  her  foe,  and  finally  she  took  fire  and 
blew  up.  The  Minnesota  was  the  third  victim 
marked  for  destruction,  and  the  Merrimac  began 
the  attack  upon  her  at  once ;  but  it  was  getting 
very  late,  and  as  the  water  was  shoal  and  she 
could  not  get  close,  the  ram  finally  drew  back  to 
her  anchorage,  to  wait  until  next  day  before  re- 
newing and  completing  her  work  of  destruction. 

All  that  night  there  was  the  wildest  exultation 
among  the  Confederates,  while  the  gloom  and 
panic  of  the  Union  men  cannot  be  described.  It 
was  evident  that  the  United  States  ships-of-war 
were  as  helpless  as  cockle-shells  against  their 
iron-clad  foe,  and  there  was  no  question  but  that 
she  could  destroy  the  whole  fleet  with  ease  and 
with  absolute  impunity.  This  meant  not  only  the 
breaking  of  the  blockade,  but  the  sweeping  away 
at  one  blow  of  the  North's  naval  supremacy, 
which  was  indispensable  to  the  success  of  the 
war  for  the  Union.  It  is  small  wonder  that 
during  that  night  the  wisest  and  bravest  should 
have  almost  despaired. 

But  in  the  hour  of  the  nation's  greatest  need 
a  champion  suddenly  appeared,  in  time  to  play 
the  last  scene  in  this  great  drama  of  sea  warfare. 
The  North,  too,  had  been  trying  its  hand  at  build- 
ing- ironclads.  The  most  successful  of  them  was 
the  little  Monitor,  a  flat-decked,  low,  turreted 
ironclad,   armed   with   a   couple    of  heavy   guns. 


HAMPTON   ROADS  193 

She  was  the  first  experiment  of  her  kind,  and 
her  absolutely  flat  surface,  nearly  level  with  the 
water,  her  revolving  turret,  and  her  utter  unlike- 
ness  to  any  preexisting  naval  type,  had  made 
her  an  object  of  mirth  among  most  practical  sea- 
men ;  but  her  inventor,  Ericsson,  was  not  dis- 
heartened in  the  least  by  the  jeers.  Under  the 
command  of  a  gallant  naval  officer,  Captain  Wor- 
den,  she  was  sent  South  from  New  York,  and 
though  she  almost  foundered  in  a  gale  she  man- 
aged to  weather  it,  and  reached  the  scene  of  the 
battle  at  Hampton  Roads  at  the  moment  when  her 
presence  was  all-important 

Early  the  following  morning  the  Merrimac, 
now  under  Captain  Jones  (for  Buchanan  had 
been  wounded),  again  steamed  forth  to  take  up 
the  work  she  had  so  well  begun  and  to  destroy 
the  Union  fleet.  She  steered  straight  for  the 
Minnesota ;  but  when  she  was  almost  there,  to 
her  astonishment  a  strange-looking  little  craft 
advanced  from  the  side  of  the  big  wooden  frig- 
ate and  boldly  barred  the  Merrimacs  path.  For 
a  moment  the  Confederates  could  hardly  believe 
their  eyes.  The  Monitor  was  tiny,  compared  to 
their  ship,  for  she  was  not  one  fifth  the  size,  and 
her  queer  appearance  made  them  look  at  their 
new  foe  with  contempt ;  but  the  first  shock  of 
battle  did  away  with  this  feeling.  The  Merri- 
mac  turned  on  her  foe  her  rifle-guns,  intending 


194      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

to  blow  her  out  of  the  water,  but  the  shot  glanced 
from  the  thick  iron  turret  of  the  Monitor.  Then 
the  Monitor  s  guns  opened  fire,  and  as  the  great 
balls  struck  the  sides  of  the  ram  her  plates  started 
and  her  timbers  gave.  Had  the  Monitor  been 
such  a  vessel  as  those  of  her  type  produced  later 
in  the  war,  the  ram  would  have  been  sunk  then 
and  there ;  but  as  it  was  her  shot  were  not  quite 
heavy  enough  to  pierce  the  iron  walls.  Around 
and  around  the  two  strange  combatants  hovered, 
their  guns  bellowing  without  cessation,  while  the 
men  on  the  frigates  and  on  shore  watched  the  re- 
sult with  breathless  interest.  Neither  the  Mer- 
rimac  nor  the  Monitor  could  dispose  of  its  an- 
tagonist. The  ram's  guns  could  not  damage  the 
turret,  and  the  Monitor  was  able  dexterously  to 
avoid  the  stroke  of  the  formidable  prow.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  shot  of  the  Monitor  could  not 
penetrate  the  Merrimacs  tough  sides.  Accord- 
ingly, fierce  though  the  struggle  was,  and  much 
though  there  was  that  hinged  on  it,  it  was  not 
bloody  in  character.  The  Merrimac  could  neither 
destroy  nor  evade  the  Monitor.  She  could  not 
sink  her  when  she  tried  to,  and  when  she  aban- 
doned her  and  turned  to  attack  one  of  the  other 
wooden  vessels,  the  little  turreted  ship  was 
thrown  across  her  path,  so  that  the  fight  had 
to  be  renewed.  Both  sides  grew  thoroughly 
exhausted,  and  finally  the  battle  ceased  by  mu- 
tual consent. 


HAMPTON   ROADS  195 

Nothing-  more  could  be  done.  The  ram  was 
badly  damaged,  and  there  was  no  help  for  her 
save  to  put  back  to  the  port  whence  she  had 
come.  Twice  afterward  she  came  out,  but 
neither  time  did  she  come  near  enough  to  the 
Monitor  to  attack  her,  and  the  latter  could  not 
move  off  where  she  would  cease  to  protect  the 
wooden  vessels.  The  ram  was  ultimately  blown 
up  by  the  Confederates  on  the  advance  of  the 
Union  army. 

Tactically,  the  fight  was  a  drawn  battle  — 
neither  ship  being  able  to  damage  the  other, 
and  both  ships  being  fought  to  a  standstill ;  but 
the  moral  and  material  effects  were  wholly  in 
favor  of  the  Monitor.  Her  victory  was  hailed 
with  exultant  joy  throughout  the  whole  Union, 
and  exercised  a  correspondingly  depressing  ef- 
fect in  the  Confederacy ;  while  every  naval  man 
throughout  the  world,  who  possessed  eyes  to  see, 
saw  that  the  fight  in  Hampton  Roads  had  inau- 
gurated a  new  era  in  ocean  warfare,  and  that  the 
Monitor  and  Merrimac,  which  had  waged  so  gal- 
lant and  so  terrible  a  battle,  were  the  first  ships 
of  the  new  era,  and  that  as  such  their  names 
would  be  forever  famous. 


THE    FLAG-BEARER 


Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord; 

He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  the  grapes  of  wrath  are 

stored ; 
He  hath  loosed  the  fateful  lightning  of  His  terrible  swift  sword ; 
His  truth  is  marching  on. 

I  have  seen  Him  in  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred  circling  camps ; 
They  have  builded  Him  an  altar  in  the  evening  dews  and  damps  ; 
I  can  read  his  righteous  sentence  by  the  dim  and  flaring  lamps ; 
His  day  is  marching  on. 

He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never  beat  retreat; 
He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  his  judgment  seat ; 
Oh  !  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  him  !  be  jubilant,  my  feet ! 
Our  God  is  marching  on. 

— Julia  Ward  Howe. 


THE  FLAG-BEARER 


IN  no  war  since  the  close  of  the  great  Napole- 
onic struggles  has  the  fighting  been  so  obsti- 
nate and  bloody  as  in  the  Civil  War.  Much  has 
been  said  in  song  and  story  of  the  resolute  cour- 
age of  the  Guards  at  Inkerman,  of  the  charge  of 
the  Liodit  Brigade,  and  of  the  terrible  fia-htina-  and 
loss  of  the  German  armies  at  Mars  La  Tour  and 
Gravelotte.  The  praise  bestowed  upon  the  British 
and  Germans  for  their  valor,  and  for  the  loss  that 
proved  their  valor,  was  well  deserved ;  but  there 
were  over  one  hundred  and  twenty  regiments, 
Union  and  Confederate,  each  of  which,  in  some  one 
battle  of  the  Civil  War,  suffered  a  greater  loss  than 
any  English  regiment  at  Inkerman  or  at  any  other 
battle  in  the  Crimea,  a  greater  loss  than  was  suf- 
fered by  any  German  regiment  at  Gravelotte  or 
at  any  other  battle  of  the  Franco- Prussian  war. 
No  European  regiment  in  any  recent  struggle  has 
suffered  such  losses  as  at  Gettysburg  befell  the 
ist  Minnesota,  when  82  per  cent,  of  the  officers 


200      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

and  men  were  killed  and  wounded;  or  the  141st 
Pennsylvania,  which  lost  76  per  cent.  ;  or  the  26th 
North  Carolina,  which  lost  72  per  cent.  ;  such  as  at 
the  second  battle  of  Manassas  befell  the  101st 
New  York,  which  lost  74  per  cent,  and  the  21st 
Georgia,  which  lost  76  per  cent.  At  Cold  Harbor 
the  25th  Massachusetts  lost  70  per  cent.,  and  the 
10th  Tennessee  at  Chickamauga  68  per  cent.  ; 
while  at  Shiloh  the  9th  Illinois  lost  63  per  cent., 
and  the  6th  Mississippi  70  per  cent. ;  and  at  An- 
tietam  the  1st  Texas  lost  82  per  cent.  The  loss  of 
the  Light  Brigade  in  killed  and  wounded  in  its  fa- 
mous charge  at  Balaklava  was  but  ^j  per  cent. 

These  figures  show  the  terrible  punishment  en- 
dured by  these  regiments,  chosen  at  random  from 
the  head  of  the  list  which  shows  the  slaughter-roll 
of  the  Civil  War.  Yet  the  shattered  remnants  of 
each  regiment  preserved  their  organization,  and 
many  of  the  severest  losses  were  incurred  in  the 
hour  of  triumph,  and  not  of  disaster.  Thus,  the  1st 
Minnesota,  at  Gettysburg,  suffered  its  appalling 
loss  while  charging  a  greatly  superior  force,  which 
it  drove  before  it ;  and  the  little  huddle  of  wounded 
and  unwounded  men  who  survived  their  victorious 
charge  actually  kept  both  the  flag  they  had  cap- 
tured and  the  ground  from  which  they  had  driven 
their  foes. 

A  number  of  the  Continental  regiments  under 
Washington,    Greene,    and    Wayne    did    valiant 


THE   FLAG-BEARER  201 

fighting  and  endured  heavy  punishment.  Several 
of  the  regiments  raised  on  the  northern  frontier 
in  1 814  showed,  under  Brown  and  Scott,  that  they 
were  able  to  meet  the  best  troops  of  Britain  on 
equal  terms  in  the  open,  and  even  to  overmatch 
them  in  fair  fight  with  the  bayonet.  The  regi- 
ments which,  in  the  Mexican  war,  under  the  lead 
of  Taylor,  captured  Monterey,  and  beat  back  Santa 
Anna  at  Buena  Vista,  or  which,  with  Scott  as 
commander,  stormed  Molino  Del  Rey  and  Cha- 
pultepec,  proved  their  ability  to  bear  terrible  loss, 
to  wrest  victory  from  overwhelming  numbers,  and 
to  carry  by  open  assault  positions  of  formidable 
strength  held  by  a  veteran  army.  But  in  none  of 
these  three  wars  was  the  fighting  so  resolute  and 
bloody  as  in  the  Civil  War. 

Countless  deeds  of  heroism  were  performed  by 
Northerner  and  by  Southerner,  by  officer  and  by 
private,  in  every  year  of  the  great  struggle.  The 
immense  majority  of  these  deeds  went  unrecorded, 
and  were  known  to  few  beyond  the  immediate 
participants.  Of  those  that  were  noticed  it  would 
be  impossible  even  to  make  a  dry  catalogue  in  ten 
such  volumes  as  this.  All  that  can  be  done  is  to 
choose  out  two  or  three  acts  of  heroism,  not  as 
exceptions,  but  as  examples  of  hundreds  of  others. 
The  times  of  war  are  iron  times,  and  brino-out  all 
that  is  best  as  well  as  all  that  is  basest  in  the 
human  heart.      In  a  full  recital  of  the  civil  war,  as 


202       HERO    TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

of  every  other  great  conflict,  there  would  stand  out 
in  naked  relief  feats  of  wonderful  daring-  and  self- 
devotion,  and,  mixed  among  them,  deeds  of  cowar- 
dice, of  treachery,  of  barbarous  brutality.  Sadder 
still,  such  a  recital  would  show  strange  contrasts 
in  the  careers  of  individual  men,  men  who  at  one 
time  acted  well  and  nobly,  and  at  another  time  ill 
and  basely.  The  ugly  truths  must  not  be  blinked, 
and  the  lessons  they  teach  should  be  set  forth  by 
every  historian,  and  learned  by  every  statesman 
and  soldier  ;  but,  for  our  good  fortune,  the  lessons 
best  worth  learning  in  the  nation's  past  are  lessons 
of  heroism. 

From  immemorial  time  the  armies  of  every  war- 
like people  have  set  the  highest  value  upon  the 
standards  they  bore  to  battle.  To  guard  one's 
own  flag  against  capture  is  the  pride,  to  capture 
the  flag  of  one's  enemy  the  ambition,  of  every 
valiant  soldier.  In  consequence,  in  every  war 
between  peoples  of  good  military  record,  feats  of 
daring  performed  by  color-bearers  are  honorably 
common.  The  Civil  War  was  full  of  such  incidents. 
Out  of  very  many  two  or  three  maybe  mentioned 
as  noteworthy. 

One  occurred  at  Fredericksburg  on  the  day 
when  half  the  brigades  of  Meagher  and  Caldwell 
lay  on  the  bloody  slope  leading  up  to  the  Con- 
federate entrenchments.  Amono-  the  assaulting 
regiments  was  the  5th   New  Hampshire,  and  it 


THE   FLAG-BEARER  203 

lost  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  out  of  three  hun- 
dred men  who  made  the  charge.  The  survivors 
fell  sullenly  back  behind  a  fence,  within  easy  range 
of  the  Confederate  rifle-pits.  Just  before  reaching 
it  the  last  of  the  color  guard  was  shot,  and  the  flag 
fell  in  the  open.  A  Captain  Perry  instantly  ran 
out  to  rescue  it,  and  as  he  reached  it  was  shot 
through  the  heart ;  another,  Captain  Murray, 
made  the  same  attempt  and  was  also  killed ;  and 
so  was  a  third,  Moore.  Several  private  soldiers 
met  a  like  fate.  They  were  all  killed  close  to  the 
flag:,  and  their  dead  bodies  fell  across  one  another. 
Taking  advantage  of  this  breastwork,  Lieutenant 
Nettleton  crawled  from  behind  the  fence  to  the 
colors,  seized  them,  and  bore  back  the  blood-won 
trophy. 

Another  took  place  at  Gaines'  Mill,  where 
Gregg's  1  st  South  Carolina  formed  part  of  the 
attacking  force.  The  resistance  was  desperate, 
and  the  fury  of  the  assault  unsurpassed.  At  one 
point  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  this  regiment  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  carrying  a  certain  strong  position.  Mov- 
ing forward  at  a  run,  the  South  Carolinians  were 
swept  by  a  fierce  and  searching  fire.  Young 
James  Taylor,  a  lad  of  sixteen,  was  carrying  the 
flag,  and  was  killed  after  being  shot  down  three 
times,  twice  rising  and  struggling  onward  with 
the  colors.  The  third  time  he  fell  the  flag  was 
seized  by  George  Cotchet,  and  when  he,  in  turn, 


204       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

fell,  by  Shubrick  Hayne.  Hayne  was  also 
struck  down  almost  immediately,  and  the  fourth 
lad,  for  none  of  them  were  over  twenty  years  old, 
grasped  the  colors,  and  fell  mortally  wounded 
across  the  body  of  his  friend.  The  fifth,  Gadsden 
Holmes,  was  pierced  with  no  less  than  seven  balls. 
The  sixth  man,  Dominick  Spellman,  more  fortu- 
nate, but  not  less  brave,  bore  the  flag  throughout 
the  rest  of  the  battle. 

Yet  another  occurred  at  Antietam.  The  7th 
Maine,  then  under  the  command  of  Major  T.  W. 
Hyde,  was  one  of  the  hundreds  of  regiments  that 
on  many  hard-fought  fields  established  a  reputa- 
tion for  dash  and  unyielding  endurance.  Toward 
the  early  part  of  the  day  at  Antietam  it  merely 
took  its  share  in  the  charging  and  long-range 
firing,  together  with  the  New  York  and  Vermont 
resfiments  which  were  its  immediate  neighbors  in 
the  line.  The  fighting  was  very  heavy.  In  one 
of  the  charges,  the  Maine  men  passed  over  what 
had  been  a  Confederate  regiment.  The  gray- 
clad  soldiers  were  lying,  both  ranks,  privates  and 
officers,  as  they  fell,  for  so  many  had  been  killed 
or  disabled  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  regi- 
ment was  prone  in  death. 

Much  of  the  time  the  Maine  men  lay  on  the 
battle-field,  hugging  the  ground,  under  a  heavy 
artillery  fire,  but  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary 
musketry.      One  of  the  privates,   named   Knox, 


THE   FLAG-BEARER  205 

was  a  wonderful  shot,  and  had  received  permis- 
sion to  use  his  own  special  rifle,  a  weapon  accu- 
rately sighted  for  very  long  range.  While  the 
regiment  thus  lay  under  the  storm  of  shot  and 
shell,  he  asked  leave  to  go  to  the  front ;  and  for 
an  hour  afterward  his  companions  heard  his  rifle 
crack  every  few  minutes.  Major  Hyde  finally, 
from  curiosity,  crept  forward  to  see  what  he  was 
doing,  and  found  that  he  had  driven  every  man 
away  from  one  section  of  a  Confederate  battery, 
tumbling  over  gunner  after  gunner  as  they  came 
forward  to  fire.  One  of  his  victims  was  a  general 
officer,  whose  horse  he  killed.  At  the  end  of  an 
hour  or  so,  a  piece  of  shell  took  off  the  breech  of 
his  pet  rifle,  and  he  returned  disconsolate  ;  but 
after  a  few  minutes  he  gathered  three  rifles  that 
were  left  by  wounded  men,  and  went  back  again 
to  his  work. 

At  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  regiment 
was  suddenly  called  upon  to  undertake  a  hopeless 
charge,  owing  to  the  blunder  of  the  brigade 
commander,  who  was  a  gallant  veteran  of  the 
Mexican  war,  but  who  was  also  given  to  drink. 
Opposite  the  Union  lines  at  this  point  were  some 
haystacks,  near  a  group  of  farm  buildings.  They 
were  right  in  the  center  of  the  Confederate  posi- 
tion, and  sharpshooters  stationed  among  them 
were  picking  off  the  Union  gunners.  The  briga- 
dier, thinking  that  they  were  held  by  but  a  few 


206      HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

skirmishers,  rode  to  where  the  7th  Maine  was 
lying  on  the  ground,  and  said :  "  Major  Hyde, 
take  your  regiment  and  drive  the  enemy  from 
those  trees  and  buildings."  Hyde  saluted,  and 
said  that  he  had  seen  a  large  force  of  rebels  go 
in  among  the  buildings,  probably  two  brigades  in 
all.  The  brigadier  answered,  "Are  you  afraid 
to  go,  sir  ?  "  and  repeated  the  order  emphatically. 
"  Give  the  order  so  the  regiment  can  hear  it,  and 
we  are  ready,  sir,"  said  Hyde.  This  was  done, 
and  "  Attention  "  brought  every  man  to  his  feet. 
With  the  regiment  were  two  young  boys  who 
carried  the  marking  guidons,  and  Hyde  ordered 
these  to  the  rear.  They  pretended  to  go,  but  as 
soon  as  the  regiment  charged  came  along  with  it. 
One  of  them  lost  his  arm,  and  the  other  was  killed 
on  the  field.  The  colors  were  carried  by  the  color 
corporal,  Harry  Campbell. 

Hyde  gave  the  orders  to  left  face  and  forward, 
and  the  Maine  men  marched  out  in  front  of  a 
Vermont  regiment  which  lay  beside  them  ;  then, 
facing  to  the  front,  they  crossed  a  sunken  road, 
which  was  so  filled  with  dead  and  wounded  Con- 
federates that  Hyde's  horse  had  to  step  on  them 
to  get  over. 

Once  across,  they  stopped  for  a  moment  in  the 
trampled  corn  to  straighten  the  line,  and  then 
charged  toward  the  right  of  the  barns.  On  they 
went  at  the  double-quick,  fifteen  skirmishers  ahead 


THE  FLAG-BEARER  207 

under  Lieutenant  Butler,  Major  Hyde  on  the 
right  on  his  Virginia  thoroughbred,  and  Adjutant 
Haskell  to  the  left  on  a  big  white  horse.  The 
latter  was  shot  down  at  once,  as  was  his  horse, 
and  Hyde  rode  round  in  front  of  the  regiment 
just  in  time  to  see  a  long  line  of  men  in  gray  rise 
from  behind  the  stone  wall  of  the  Hagerstown 
pike,  which  was  to  their  right,  and  pour  in  a  vol- 
ley; but  it  mostly  went  too  high.  He  then  or- 
dered his  men  to  left  oblique. 

Just  as  they  were  abreast  a  hill  to  the  right  of 
the  barns,  Hyde,  being  some  twenty  feet  ahead, 
looked  over  its  top  and  saw  several  regiments  of 
Confederates,  jammed  close  together  and  waiting 
at  the  ready ;  so  he  gave  the  order  left  flank,  and, 
still  at  the  double  quick,  took  his  column  past  the 
barns  and  buildings  toward  an  orchard  on  the 
hither  side,  hoping  that  he  could  get  them  back 
before  they  were  cut  off,  for  they  were  faced  by 
ten  times  their  number.  By  going  through  the 
orchard  he  expected  to  be  able  to  take  advantage 
of  a  hollow,  and  partially  escape  the  destructive 
flank  fire  on  his  return. 

To  hope  to  keep  the  barns  from  which  they  had 
driven  the  sharpshooters  was  vain,  for  the  single 
Maine  regiment  found  itself  opposed  to  portions 
of  no  less  than  four  Confederate  brigades,  at  least 
a  dozen  regiments  all  told.  When  the  men  got 
to  the  orchard  fence,  Sergeant  Benson  wrenched 


208      HERO    TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

apart  the  tall  pickets  to  let  through  Hyde's  horse. 
While  he  was  doing  this,  a  shot  struck  his  haver- 
sack, and  the  men  all  laughed  at  the  sight  of  the 
flying  hardtack. 

Going  into  the  orchard  there  was  a  rise  of 
ground,  and  the  Confederates  fired  several  vol- 
leys at  the  Maine  men,  and  then  charged  them. 
Hyde's  horse  was  twice  wounded,  but  was  still 
able  to  go  on. 

No  sooner  were  the  men  in  blue  beyond  the 
fence  than  they  got  into  line  and  met  the  Con- 
federates, as  they  came  crowding  behind,  with  a 
slaughtering  fire,  and  then  charged,  driving  them 
back.  The  color  corporal  was  still  carrying  the 
colors,  though  one  of  his  arms  had  been  broken ; 
but  when  half  way  through  the  orchard,  Hyde 
heard  him  call  out  as  he  fell,  and  turned  back 
to  save  the  colors,  if  possible. 

The  apple-trees  were  short  and  thick,  and  he 
could  not  see  much,  and  the  Confederates  speedily 
got  between  him  and  his  men.  Immediately,  with 
the  cry  of"  Rally,  boys,  to  save  the  Major,"  back 
surged  the  regiment,  and  a  volley  at  arm's  length 
again  destroyed  all  the  foremost  of  their  pursuers  ; 
so  they  rescued  both  their  commander  and  the 
flag,  which   was   carried  off  by   Corporal   Ring. 

Hyde  then  formed  the  regiment  on  the  colors, 
sixty-eight  men  all  told,  out  of  two  hundred  and 
forty  who  had  begun  the  charge,  and  they  slowly 


THE    FLAG-BEARER  209 

marched  back  toward  their  place  in  the  Union 
line,  while  the  New  Yorkers  and  Vermonters  rose 
from  the  ground  cheering  and  waving  their  hats. 
Next  day,  when  the  Confederates  had  retired  a 
little  from  the  field,  the  color  corporal,  Campbell, 
was  found  in  the  orchard,  dead,  propped  up  against 
a  tree,  with  his  half-smoked  pipe  beside  him. 


THE    DEATH    OF   STONEWALL 
JACKSON 


Like  a  servant  of  the  Lord,  with  his  bible  and  his  sword, 
Our  general  rode  along  us,  to  form  us  for  the  fight. 

— Macau  lay. 


THE    DEATH    OF   STONEWALL 
JACKSON 

THE  Civil  War  has  left,  as  all  wars  of  broth- 
er against  brother  must  leave,  terrible  and 
heartrending  memories ;  but  there  remains  as 
an  offset  the  glory  which  has  accrued  to  the 
nation  by  the  countless  deeds  of  heroism  per- 
formed by  both  sides  in  the  struggle.  The  cap- 
tains and  the  armies  that,  after  long  years  of 
dreary  campaigning  and  bloody,  stubborn  fight- 
ing, brought  the  war  to  a  close,  have  left  us  more 
than  a  reunited  realm.  North  and  South,  all 
Americans,  now  have  a  common  fund  of  glori- 
ous memories.  We  are  the  richer  for  each  grim 
campaign,  for  each  hard-fought  battle.  We  are 
the  richer  for  valor  displayed  alike  by  those  who 
fought  so  valiantly  for  the  right,  and  by  those 
who,  no  less  valiantly,  fought  for  what  they 
deemed  the  right.  We  have  in  us  nobler  capa- 
cities for  what  is  great  and  good  because  of  the 
infinite  woe  and  suffering,  and  because  of  the 
splendid  ultimate  triumph.     We  hold  that  it  was 


214      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

vital  to  the  welfare,  not  only  of  our  people  on 
this  continent,  but  of  the  whole  human  race,  that 
the  Union  should  be  preserved  and  slavery  abol- 
ished ;  that  one  flag  should  fly  from  the  Great 
Lakes  to  the  Rio  Grande ;  that  we  should  all  be 
free  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  and  that  the 
United  States  should  stand  as  one  nation  —  the 
greatest  nation  on  the  earth.  But  we  recognize 
gladly  that,  South  as  well  as  North,  when  the 
fight  was  once  on,  the  leaders  of  the  armies,  and 
the  soldiers  whom  they  led,  displayed  the  same 
qualities  of  daring  and  steadfast  courage,  of  dis- 
interested loyalty  and  enthusiasm,  and  of  high 
devotion  to  an  ideal. 

The  greatest  general  of  the  South  was  Lee, 
and  his  greatest  lieutenant  was  Jackson.  Both 
were  Virginians,  and  both  were  strongly  opposed 
to  disunion.  Lee  went  so  far  as  to  deny  the  right 
of  secession,  while  Jackson  insisted  that  the  South 
ought  to  try  to  get  its  rights  inside  the  Union,  and 
not  outside.  But  when  Virginia  joined  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  and  the  war  had  actually  begun, 
both  men  cast  their  lot  with  the  South. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  Civil  War  was  in  one 
sense  a  repetition  of  the  old  struggle  between  the 
Puritan  and  the  Cavalier ;  but  Puritan  and  Cava- 
lier types  were  common  to  the  two  armies.  In 
dash  and  light-hearted  daring,  Custer  and  Kear- 
ney stood  as  conspicuous  as  Stuart  and  Morgan  ; 


THE   DEATH    OF    STONEWALL   JACKSON         215 

and,  on  the  other  hand,  no  Northern  general  ap- 
proached the  Roundhead  type  —  the  type  of  the 
stern,  religious  warriors  who  fought  under  Crom- 
well—  so  closely  as  Stonewall  Jackson.  He  was  a 
man  of  intense  religious  conviction,  who  carried 
into  every  thought  and  deed  of  his  daily  life  the 
precepts  of  the  faith  he  cherished.  He  was  a 
tender  and  loving  husband  and  father,  kind- 
hearted  and  gentle  to  all  with  whom  he  was 
brought  in  contact ;  yet  in  the  times  that  tried 
men's  souls,  he  proved  not  only  a  commander  of 
genius,  but  a  fighter  of  iron  will  and  temper, 
who  joyed  in  the  battle,  and  always  showed  at 
his  best  when  the  danger  was  greatest.  The 
vein  of  fanaticism  that  ran  through  his  charac- 
ter helped  to  render  him  a  terrible  opponent. 
He  knew  no  such  word  as  falter,  and  when  he 
had  once  put  his  hand  to  a  piece  of  work,  he  did 
it  thoroughly  and  with  all  his  heart.  It  was  quite 
in  keeping  with  his  character  that  this  gentle, 
high-minded,  and  religious  man  should,  early  in 
the  contest,  have  proposed  to  hoist  the  black  flag, 
neither  take  nor  give  quarter,  and  make  the  war 
one  of  extermination.  No  such  policy  was  prac- 
tical in  the  nineteenth  century  and  in  the  Ameri- 
can Republic ;  but  it  would  have  seemed  quite 
natural  and  proper  to  Jackson's  ancestors,  the 
grim  Scotch- Irish,  who  defended  Londonderry 
against  the  forces  of  the  Stuart  king,  or  to  their 


216      HERO    TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

forefathers,  the  Covenanters  of  Scotland,  and  the 
Puritans  who  in  England  rejoiced  at  the  behead- 
ing of  King  Charles  I. 

In  the  first  battle  in  which  Jackson  took  part, 
the  confused  struggle  at  Bull  Run,  he  gained  his 
name  of  Stonewall  from  the  firmness  with  which 
he  kept  his  men  to  their  work  and  repulsed  the 
attack  of  the  Union  troops.  From  that  time 
until  his  death,  less  than  two  years  afterward, 
his  career  was  one  of  brilliant  and  almost  unin- 
terrupted success  ;  whether  serving  with  an  in- 
dependent command  in  the  Valley,  or  acting  under 
Lee  as  his  right  arm  in  the  pitched  battles  with 
McClellan,  Pope,  and  Burnside.  Few  generals 
as  great  as  Lee  have  ever  had  as  great  a  lieuten- 
ant as  Jackson.  He  was  a  master  of  strategy  and 
tactics,  fearless  of  responsibility,  able  to  instil  into 
his  men  his  own  intense  ardor  in  battle,  and  so 
quick  in  his  movements,  so  ready  to  march  as 
well  as  fight,  that  his  troops  were  known  to  the 
rest  of  the  army  as  the  "foot  cavalry." 

In  the  spring  of  1863  Hooker  had  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Like  McClellan, 
he  was  able  to  perfect  the  discipline  of  his  forces 
and  to  organize  them,  and  as  a  division  com- 
mander he  was  better  than  McClellan,  but  he 
failed  even  more  signally  when  given  a  great  in- 
dependent command.  He  had  under  him  120,000 
men  when,  toward  the  end  of  April,  he  prepared 


STONEWALL  JACKSON    GOING   FORWARD   ON   THE   PLANK    ROAD    IN 
ADVANCE   OF   THE   LINE    OF   BATTLE. 


THE   DEATH   OF   STONEWALL   JACKSON         219 

to  attack  Lee's  army,  which  was  but  half  as 
strong. 

The  Union  army  lay  opposite  Fredericksburg, 
looking  at  the  fortified  heights  where  they  had  re- 
ceived so  bloody  a  repulse  at  the  beginning  of  the 
winter.  Hooker  decided  to  distract  the  attention 
of  the  Confederates  by  letting  a  small  portion  of 
his  force,  under  General  Sedgwick,  attack  Fred- 
ericksburg, while  he  himself  took  the  bulk  of  the 
army  across  the  river  to  the  right  hand  so  as  to 
crush  Lee  by  an  assault  on  his  flank.  All  went 
well  at  the  beginning,  and  on  the  first  of  May 
Hooker  found  himself  at  Chancellorsville,  face-to- 
face  with  the  bulk  of  Lee's  forces;  and  Sedgwick, 
crossing  the  river  and  charging  with  the  utmost 
determination,  had  driven  out  of  Fredericksburg 
the  Confederate  division  of  Early ;  but  when 
Hooker  found  himself  in  front  of  Lee  he  hesi- 
tated, faltered  instead  of  pushing  on,  and  allowed 
the  consummate  general  to  whom  he  was  op- 
posed to  take  the  initiative. 

Lee  fully  realized  his  danger,  and  saw  that  his 
only  chance  was,  first  to  beat  back  Hooker,  and 
then  to  turn  and  overwhelm  Sedgwick,  who  was 
in  his  rear.  He  consulted  with  Jackson,  and  Jack- 
son begged  to  be  allowed  to  make  one  of  his 
favorite  flank  attacks  upon  the  Union  army ;  at- 
tacks which  could  have  been  successfully  delivered 
only  by  a  skilled  and  resolute  general,  and  by 


220       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

troops  equally  able  to  march  and  to  fight.  Lee 
consented,  and  Jackson  at  once  made  off.  The 
country  was  thickly  covered  with  a  forest  of  rather 
small  growth,  for  it  was  a  wild  region,  in  which 
there  was  still  plenty  of  game.  Shielded  by  the 
forest,  Jackson  marched  his  gray  columns  rapidly 
to  the  left  along  the  narrow  country  roads  until 
he  was  square  on  the  flank  of  the  Union  right 
wing,  which  was  held  by  the  Eleventh  Corps, 
under  Howard.  The  Union  scouts  got  track  of 
the  movement  and  reported  it  at  headquarters, 
but  the  Union  generals  thought  the  Confederates 
were  retreating ;  and  when  finally  the  scouts 
brought  word  to  Howard  that  he  was  menaced 
by  a  flank  attack  he  paid  no  heed  to  the  informa- 
tion, and  actually  let  his  whole  corps  be  surprised 
in  broad  daylight.  Yet  all  the  while  the  battle 
was  going  on  elsewhere,  and  Berdan's  sharp- 
shooters had  surrounded  and  captured  a  Georgia 
regiment,  from  which  information  was  received 
showing  definitely  that  Jackson  was  not  retreat- 
ing, and  must  be  preparing  to  strike  a  heavy 
blow. 

The  Eleventh  Corps  had  not  the  slightest  idea 
that  it  was  about  to  be  assailed.  The  men  were 
not  even  in  line.  Many  of  them  had  stacked  their 
muskets  and  were  lounging  about,  some  playing 
cards,  others  cooking  supper,  intermingled  with 
the  pack-mules  and  beef  cattle.    While  they  were 


THE   DEATH   OF    STONEWALL   JACKSON         221 

thus  utterly  unprepared  Jackson's  gray-clad  vete- 
rans pushed  straight  through  the  forest  and  rushed 
fiercely  to  the  attack.  The  first  notice  the  troops 
of  the  Eleventh  Corps  received  did  not  come  from 
the  pickets,  but  from  the  deer,  rabbits  and  foxes 
which,  fleeing  from  their  coverts  at  the  approach 
of  the  Confederates,  suddenly  came  running  over 
and  into  the  Union  lines.  In  another  minute  the 
frightened  pickets  came  tumbling  back,  and  right 
behind  them  came  the  long  files  of  charging,  yell- 
ing Confederates.  With  one  fierce  rush  Jackson's 
men  swept  over  the  Union  lines,  and  at  a  blow 
the  Eleventh  Corps  became  a  horde  of  panic- 
struck  fugitives.  Some  of  the  regiments  resisted 
for  a  few  moments,  and  then  they  too  were  car- 
ried away  in  the  flight. 

For  a  while  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  army  would 
be  swept  off;  but  Hooker  and  his  subordinates 
exerted  every  effort  to  restore  order.  It  was  im- 
perative to  gain  time  so  that  the  untouched  por- 
tions of  the  army  could  form  across  the  line  of 
the  Confederate  advance. 

Keenan's  regiment  of  Pennsylvania  cavalry, 
but  four  hundred  sabers  strong,  was  accordingly 
sent  full  against  the  front  of  the  ten  thousand 
victorious  Confederates. 

Keenan  himself  fell,  pierced  by  bayonets,  and 
the  charge  was  repulsed  at  once  ;  but  a  few  price- 
less  moments  had  been   saved,  and  Pleasanton 


222      HERO    TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

had  been  given  time  to  post  twenty-two  guns, 
loaded  with  double  canister,  where  they  would 
bear  upon  the  enemy. 

The  Confederates  advanced  in  a  dense  mass, 
yelling  and  cheering,  and  the  discharge  of  the 
guns  fairly  blew  them  back  across  the  works 
they  had  just  taken.  Again  they  charged,  and 
again  were  driven  back  ;  and  when  the  battle  once 
more  began  the  Union  reinforcements  had  arrived. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Jackson  himself  was 
mortally  wounded.  He  had  been  leading  and 
urging  on  the  advance  of  his  men,  cheering  them 
with  voice  and  gesture,  his  pale  face  flushed  with 
joy  and  excitement,  while  from  time  to  time  as  he 
sat  on  his  horse  he  took  off  his  hat  and,  looking 
upward,  thanked  heaven  for  the  victory  it  had 
vouchsafed  him.  As  darkness  drew  near  he  was 
in  the  front,  where  friend  and  foe  were  mingled 
in  almost  inextricable  confusion.  He  and  his  staff 
were  fired  at,  at  close  range,  by  the  Union  troops, 
and,  as  they  turned,  were  fired  at  again,  through 
a  mistake,  by  the  Confederates  behind  them. 
Jackson  fell,  struck  in  several  places.  He  was  put 
in  a  litter  and  carried  back  ;  but  he  never  lost 
consciousness,  and  when  one  of  his  generals  com- 
plained of  the  terrible  effect  of  the  Union  cannon- 
ade he  answered : 

"  You  must  hold  your  ground." 

For  several    days    he    lingered,   hearing   how 


THE   DEATH    OF   STONEWALL  JACKSON         223 

Lee  beat  Hooker,  in  detail,  and  forced  him  back 
across  the  river.  Then  the  old  Puritan  died.  At 
the  end  his  mind  wandered,  and  he  thought  he 
was  again  commanding  in  battle,  and  his  last 
words  were. 

"  Let  us  cross  over  the  river  and  rest  in  the 
shade." 

Thus  perished  Stonewall  Jackson,  one  of  the 
ablest  of  soldiers  and  one  of  the  most  upright  of 
men,  in  the  last  of  his  many  triumphs. 


THE    CHARGE   AT   GETTYSBURG 


For  the  Lord 

On  the  whirlwind  is  abroad ; 
In  the  earthquake  he  has  spoken  ; 

He  has  smitten  with  his  thunder 

The  iron  walls  asunder, 
And  the  gates  of  brass  are  broken  ! 

—  Whittle)'. 

With  bray  of  the  trumpet, 

And  roll  of  the  drum, 
And  keen  ring  of  bugle 

The  cavalry  come : 
Sharp  clank  the  steel  scabbards, 

The  bridle-chains  ring, 
And  foam  from  red  nostrils 

The  wild  chargers  fling  ! 

Tramp,  tramp  o'er  the  greensward 

That  quivers  below, 
Scarce  held  by  the  curb  bit 

The  fierce  horses  go  ! 
And  the  grim-visaged  colonel, 

With  ear-rending  shout, 
Peals  forth  to  the  squadrons 

The  order,  "  Trot  Out  "  ! 

— Francis  A.  Durivage. 


THE  CHARGE  AT  GETTYSBURG 

THE  battle  of  Chancellorsville  marked  the 
zenith  of  Confederate  good  fortune.  Im- 
mediately afterward,  in  June,  1863,  Lee  led  the 
victorious  army  of  Northern  Virginia  into  Penn- 
sylvania. The  South  was  now  the  invader,  not 
the  invaded,  and  its  heart  beat  proudly  with  hopes 
of  success  ;  but  these  hopes  went  down  in  bloody 
wreck  on  July  4,  when  word  was  sent  to  the  world 
that  the  high  valor  of  Virginia  had  failed  at  last 
on  the  field  of  Gettysburg,  and  that  in  the  far 
West  Vicksburg  had  been  taken  by  the  army  of 
the  "  silent  soldier." 

At  Gettysburg  Lee  had  under  him  some  seventy 
thousand  men,  and  his  opponent,  Meade,  about 
ninety  thousand.  Both  armies  were  composed 
mainly  of  seasoned  veterans,  trained  to  the  high- 
est point  by  campaign  after  campaign  and  battle 
after  battle  ;  and  there  was  nothing  to  choose 
between  them  as  to  the  fighting  power  of  the  rank 
and  file.     The  Union   army  was   the  larger,  yet 


228       HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

most  of  the  time  it  stood  on  the  defensive ;  for 
the  difference  between  the  generals,  Lee  and 
Meade,  was  greater  than  could  be  bridged  by 
twenty  thousand  men.  For  three  days  the  battle 
raged.  No  other  battle  of  recent  time  has  been 
so  obstinate  and  so  bloody.  The  victorious  Union 
army  lost  a  greater  percentage  in  killed  and 
wounded  than  the  allied  armies  of  England,  Ger- 
many, and  the  Netherlands  lost  at  Waterloo. 
Four  of  its  seven  corps  suffered  each  a  greater 
relative  loss  than  befell  the  world-renowned  Brit- 
*  ish  infantry  on  the  day  that  saw  the  doom  of  the 
French  emperor.  The  defeated  Confederates  at 
Gettysburg  lost,  relatively,  as  many  men  as  the 
defeated  French  at  Waterloo ;  but  whereas  the 
French  army  became  a  mere  rabble,  Lee  with- 
drew his  formidable  soldiery  with  their  courage 
unbroken,  and  their  fighting  power  only  dimin- 
ished by  their  actual  losses  in  the  field. 

The  decisive  moment  of  the  battle,  and  perhaps 
of  the  whole  war,  was  in  the  afternoon  of  the  third 
day,  when  Lee  sent  forward  his  choicest  troops 
in  a  last  effort  to  break  the  middle  of  the  Union 
line.  The  center  of  the  attacking  force  was  Pick- 
ett's division,  the  flower  of  the  Virginia  infantry  ; 
but  many  other  brigades  took  part  in  the  assault, 
and  the  column,  all  told,  numbered  over  fifteen 
thousand  men.  At  the  same  time,  the  Confeder- 
ates attacked  the  Union  left  to  create  a  diversion. 


THE    CHARGE   AT    GETTYSBURG  229 

The  attack  was  preceded  by  a  terrific  cannonade, 
Lee  gathering  one  hundred  and  fifteen  guns,  an4 
opening  a  fire  on  the  center  of  the  Union  line. 
In  response,  Hunt,  the  Union  chief  of  artillery, 
and  Tyler,  of  the  artillery  reserves,  gathered 
eighty  guns  on  the  crest  of  the  gently  sloping 
hill,  where  attack  was  threatened.  For  two  hours, 
from  one  till  three,  the  cannonade  lasted,  and 
the  batteries  on  both  sides  suffered  severely.  In 
both  the  Union  and  Confederate  lines  caissons 
were  blown  up  by  the  fire,  riderless  horses  dashed 
hither  and  thither,  the  dead  lay  in  heaps,  and 
throngs  of  wounded  streamed  to  the  rear.  Every 
man  lay  down  and  sought  what  cover  he  could. 
It  was  evident  that  the  Confederate  cannonade 
was  but  a  prelude  to  a  great  infantry  attack, 
and  at  three  o'clock  Hunt  ordered  the  fire  to 
stop,  that  the  guns  might  cool,  to  be  ready  for  the 
coming  assault.  The  Confederates  thought  that 
they  had  silenced  the  hostile  artillery,  and  for  a 
few  minutes  their  firing  continued  ;  then,  suddenly, 
it  ceased,  and  there  was  a  lull. 

The  men  on  the  Union  side  who  were  not  at  the 
point  directly  menaced  peered  anxiously  across 
the  space  between  the  lines  to  watch  the  next 
move,  while  the  men  in  the  divisions  which  it  was 
certain  were  about  to  be  assaulted,  lay  hugging 
the  ground  and  gripping  their  muskets,  excited, 
but  confident  and  resolute.    They  saw  the  smoke 


230       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

clouds  rise  slowly  from  the  opposite  crest,  where 
the  Confederate  army  lay,  and  the  sunlight  glinted 
again  on  the  long  line  of  brass  and  iron  guns 
which  had  been  hidden  from  view  during  the  can- 
nonade. In  another  moment,  out  of  the  lifting 
smoke  there  appeared,  beautiful  and  terrible,  the 
picked  thousands  of  the  Southern  army  coming  on 
to  the  assault.  They  advanced  in  three  lines,  each 
over  a  mile  long,  and  in  perfect  order.  Pickett's 
Virginians  held  the  center,  with  on  their  left  the 
North  Carolinians  of  Pender  and  Pettigrew,  and 
on  their  ricdit  the  Alabama  regiments  of  Wilcox  ; 
and  there  were  also  Georgian  and  Tennessee  regi- 
ments  in  the  attacking  force.  Pickett's  division, 
however,  was  the  only  one  able  to  press  its  charge 
home.  After  leaving  the  woods  where  they  started, 
the  Confederates  had  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  to 
go  in  their  charge.  As  the  Virginians  moved, 
they  bent  slightly  to  the  left,  so  as  to  leave  a  gap 
between  them  and  the  Alabamians  on  the  right. 

The  Confederate  lines  came  on  magnificently. 
As  they  crossed  the  Emmetsburg  Pike  the  eighty 
guns  on  the  Union  crest,  now  cool  and  in  good 
shape,  opened  upon  them,  first  with  shot  and  then 
with  shell.  Great  gaps  were  made  every  second 
in  the  ranks,  but  the  gray-clad  soldiers  closed  up 
to  the  center,  and  the  color-bearers  leaped  to  the 
front,  shaking  and  waving  the  flags.  The  Union 
infantry  reserved  their  fire  until  the  Confederates 


m 


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THE    CHARGE   AT    GETTYSBURG  233 

were  within  easy  range,  when  the  musketry 
crashed  out  with  a  roar,  and  the  big  guns  began 
to  fire  grape  and  canister.  On  came  the  Con- 
federates, the  men  falling  by  hundreds,  the  colors 
fluttering  in  front  like  a  little  forest ;  for  as  fast 
as  a  color-bearer  was  shot  some  one  else  seized 
the  flag  from  his  hand  before  it  fell.  The  North 
Carolinians  were  more  exposed  to  the  fire  than 
any  other  portion  of  the  attacking  force,  and 
they  were  broken  before  they  reached  the  line. 
There  was  a  gap  between  the  Virginians  and  the 
Alabama  troops,  and  this  was  taken  advantage 
of  by  Stannard's  Vermont  brigade  and  a  demi- 
brigade  under  Gates,  of  the  20th  New  York,  who 
were  thrust  forward  into  it.  Stannard  changed 
front  with  his  regiments  and  fell  on  Pickett's  forces 
in  flank,  and  Gates  continued  the  attack.  When 
thus  struck  in  the  flank,  the  Virginians  could  not 
defend  themselves,  and  they  crowded  off  toward  the 
center  to  avoid  the  pressure.  Many  of  them  were 
killed  or  captured ;  many  were  driven  back ;  but 
two  of  the  brigades,  headed  by  General  Armi- 
stead,  forced  their  way  forward  to  the  stone  wall 
on  the  crest,  where  the  Pennsylvania  regiments 
were  posted  under  Gibbon  and  Webb. 

The  Union  guns  fired  to  the  last  moment,  until 
of  the  two  batteries  immediately  in  front  of  the 
charging  Virginians  every  officer  but  one  had 
been  struck.      One  of  the  mortally  wounded  offi- 


234      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

cers  was  young  Cushing,  a  brother  of  the  hero 
of  the  Albemarle  fight.  He  was  almost  cut  in 
twcf,  but  holding  his  body  together  with  one  hand, 
with  the  other  he  fired  his  last  gun,  and  fell  dead, 
just  as  Armistead,  pressing  forward  at  the  head 
of  his  men,  leaped  the  wall,  waving  his  hat  on  his 
sword.  Immediately  afterward  the  battle-flags 
of  the  foremost  Confederate  regiments  crowned 
the  crest ;  but  their  strength  was  spent.  The 
Union  troops  moved  forward  with  the  bayonet, 
and  the  remnant  of  Pickett's  division,  attacked  on 
all  sides,  either  surrendered  or  retreated  down 
the  hill  again.  Armistead  fell,  dying,  by  the  body 
of  the  dead  Cushing.  Both  Gibbon  and  Webb 
were  wounded.  Of  Pickett's  command  two  thirds 
were  killed,  wounded  or  captured,  and  every  bri- 
gade commander  and  every  field  officer,  save  one, 
fell.  The  Virginians  tried  to  rally,  but  were 
broken  and  driven  again  by  Gates,  while  Stan- 
nard  repeated,  at  the  expense  of  the  Alabamians, 
the  movement  he  had  made  against  the  Virgin- 
ians, and,  reversing  his  front,  attacked  them  in 
flank.  Their  lines  were  torn  by  the  batteries  in 
front,  and  they  fell  back  before  the  Vermonter's 
attack,  and  Stannard  reaped  a  rich  harvest  of 
prisoners  and  of  battle-flags. 

The  charge  was  over.  It  was  the  greatest 
charge  in  any  battle  of  modern  times,  and  it  had 
failed.    It  would  be  impossible  to  surpass  the  gal- 


THE    CHARGE    AT    GETTYSBURG  235 

lantry  of  those  that  made  it,  or  the  gallantry  of 
those  that  withstood  it.  Had  there  been  in  com- 
mand of  the  Union  army  a  general  like  Grant,  it 
would  have  been  followed  by  a  counter-charge, 


MAJOR-GENERAL   GEORGE   A.    CUSTER. 

and  in  all  probability  the  war  would  have  been 
shortened  by  nearly  two  years ;  but  no  counter- 
charge was  made. 

As  the  afternoon  waned,  a  fierce  cavalry  fight 
took  place  on  the  Union  right.  Stuart,  the  famous 
Confederate  cavalry  commander,  had  moved  for- 
ward to  turn  the  Union  right,  but  he  was  met  by 


236       HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Gregg's  cavalry,  and  there  followed  a  contest,  at 
close  quarters,  with  "the  white  arm."  It  closed 
with  a  desperate  melee,  in  which  the  Confeder- 
ates, charging  under  Generals  Wade  Hampton 
and  Fitz  Lee,  were  met  in  mid  career  by  the 
Union  generals  Custer  and  Mcintosh.  All  four 
fought,  saber  in  hand,  at  the  head  of  their  troop- 
ers, and  every  man  on  each  side  was  put  into  the 
struggle.  Custer,  his  yellow  hair  flowing,  his  face 
aflame  with  the  eager  joy  of  battle,  was  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight,  rising  in  his  stirrups  as  he  called 
to  his  famous  Michigan  swordsmen  :  "  Come  on, 
you  Wolverines,  come  on  ! "  All  that  the  Union 
infantry,  watching  eagerly  from  their  lines,  could 
see,  was  a  vast  dust-cloud  where  flakes  of  light 
shimmered  as  the  sun  shone  upon  the  swinging 
sabers.  At  last  the  Confederate  horsemen  were 
beaten  back,  and  they  did  not  come  forward  again 
or  seek  to  renew  the  combat ;  for  Pickett's  charge 
had  failed,  and  there  was  no  longer  hope  of  Con- 
federate victory. 

When  night  fell,  the  Union  flags  waved  in  tri- 
umph on  the  field  of  Gettysburg  ;  but  over  thirty 
thousand  men  lay  dead  or  wounded,  strewn 
through  wood  and  meadow,  on  field  and  hill, 
where  the  three  days'  fight  had  surged. 


GENERAL    GRANT   AND   THE 
VICKSBURG   CAMPAIGN 


What  flag  is  this  you  carry 

Along  the  sea  and  shore  ? 
The  same  our  grandsires  lifted  up  — 

The  same  our  fathers  bore. 
In  many  a  battle's  tempest 

It  shed  the  crimson  rain — 
What  God  has  woven  in  his  loom 

Let  no  man  rend  in  twain. 
To  Canaan,  to  Canaan, 

The  Lord  has  led  us  forth, 
To  plant  upon  the  rebel  towers 

The  banners  of  the  North. 

—  Holmes. 


GENERAL  GRANT  AND  THE  VICKS- 
BURG   CAMPAIGN 


ON  January  29,  1863,  General  Grant  took 
command  of  the  army  intended  to  operate 
against  Vicksburg,  the  last  place  held  by  the 
rebels  on  the  Mississippi,  and  the  only  point  at 
which  they  could  cross  the  river  and  keep  up 
communication  with  their  armies  and  territory  in 
the  southwest.  It  was  the  first  high  ground  be- 
low Memphis,  was  very  strongly  fortified,  and  was 
held  by  a  large  army  under  General  Pemberton. 
The  complete  possession  of  the  Mississippi  was 
absolutely  essential  to  the  National  Government, 
because  the  control  of  that  great  river  would  cut 
the  Confederacy  in  two,  and  do  more,  probably, 
than  anything  else,  to  make  the  overthrow  of  the 
Rebellion  both  speedy  and  certain. 

The  natural  way  to  invest  and  capture  so  strong 
a  place,  defended  and  fortified  as  Vicksburg  was, 
would  have  been,  if  the  axioms  of  the  art  of  war 
had  been  adhered  to,  by  a  system  of  gradual 
approaches.      A  strong  base  should  have  been 


24o      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

established  at  Memphis,  and  then  the  army  and 
the  fleet  moved  gradually  forward,  building  store- 
houses and  taking  strong  positions  as  they  went. 
To  do  this,  however,  it  first  would  have  been  nec- 
essary to  withdraw  the  army  from  the  positions 
it  then  held  not  far  above  Vicksburg,  on  the  west- 
ern bank  of  the  river.  But  such  a  movement,  at 
that  time,  would  not  have  been  understood  by 
the  country,  and  would  have  had  a  discouraging 
effect  on  the  public  mind,  which  it  was  most 
essential  to  avoid.  The  elections  of  1862  had 
gone  against  the  government,  and  there  was  great 
discouragement  throughout  the  North.  Volun- 
tary enlistments  had  fallen  off,  a  draft  had  been 
ordered,  and  the  peace  party  was  apparently 
gaining  rapidly  in  strength.  General  Grant, 
looking  at  this  grave  political  situation  with  the 
eye  of  a  statesman,  decided,  as  a  soldier,  that 
under  no  circumstances  would  he  withdraw  the 
army,  but  that,  whatever  happened,  he  would 
"  press  forward  to  a  decisive  victory."  In  this 
determination  he  never  faltered,  but  drove  straight 
at  his  object  until,  five  months  later,  the  great 
Mississippi  stronghold  fell  before  him. 

Efforts  were  made  through  the  winter  to  reach 
Vicksburg  from  the  north  by  cutting  canals,  and 
by  attempts  to  get  in  through  the  bayous  and 
tributary  streams  of  the  great  river.  All  these 
expedients  failed,  however,  one  after  another,  as 


GRANT   AND   THE   VICKSBURG    CAMPAIGN      241 

Grant,  from  the  beginning,  had  feared  that  they 
would.  He,  therefore,  took  another  and  widely  dif- 
ferent line,  and  determined  to  cross  the  river  from 
the  western  to  the  eastern  bank  below  Vicksburg, 
to  the  south.  With  the  aid  of  the  fleet,  which 
ran  the  batteries  successfully,  he  moved  his  army 
down  the  west  bank  until  he  reached  a  point  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  attack,  while  a  diversion  by 
Sherman  at  Haines'  Bluff,  above  Vicksburg,  kept 
Pemberton  in  his  fortifications.  On  April  26, 
Grant  began  to  move  his  men  over  the  river  and 
landed  them  at  Bruinsburg.  "When  this  was  ef- 
fected," he  writes,  "  I  felt  a  degree  of  relief  scarcely 
ever  equaled  since.  Vicksburg  was  not  yet  taken, 
it  is  true,  nor  were  its  defenders  demoralized  by 
any  of  our  previous  movements.  I  was  now  in 
the  enemy's  country,  with  a  vast  river  and  the 
stronghold  of  Vicksburg  between  me  and  my  base 
of  supplies,  but  I  was  on  dry  ground,  on  the  same 
side  of  the  river  with  the  enemy." 

The  situation  was  this :  The  enemy  had  about 
sixty  thousand  men  at  Vicksburg,  Haines'  Bluff, 
and  at  Jackson,  Mississippi,  about  fifty  miles  east 
of  Vicksburg.  Grant,  when  he  started,  had  about 
thirty-three  thousand  men.  It  was  absolutely 
necessary  for  success  that  Grant,  with  inferior 
numbers,  should  succeed  in  destroying  the  smaller 
forces  to  the  eastward,  and  thus  prevent  their 
union    with    Pemberton    and  the    main  army  at 


242       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Vicksburg.  His  plan,  in  brief,  was  to  fight  and 
defeat  a  superior  enemy  separately  and  in  detail. 
He  lost  no  time  in  putting  his  plan  into  action, 
and  pressing  forward  quickly,  met  a  detachment 
of  the  enemy  at  Port  Gibson  and  defeated  them. 
Thence  he  marched  to  Grand  Gulf,  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, which  he  took,  and  which  he  had  planned 
to  make  a  base  of  supply.  When  he  reached 
Grand  Gulf,  however,  he  found  that  he  would  be 
obliged  to  wait  a  month,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
reinforcements  which  he  expected  from  General 
Banks  at  Port  Hudson.  He,  therefore,  gave  up 
the  idea  of  making  Grand  Gulf  a  base,  and  Sher- 
man having  now  joined  him  with  his  corps,  Grant 
struck  at  once  into  the  interior.  He  took  nothing 
with  him  except  ammunition,  and  his  army  was 
in  the  lightest  marching  order.  This  enabled  him 
to  move  with  great  rapidity,  but  deprived  him 
of  his  wagon  trains,  and  of  all  munitions  of  war 
except  cartridges.  Everything,  however,  in  this 
campaign,  depended  on  quickness,  and  Grant's  de- 
cision, as  well  as  all  his  movements,  marked  the 
genius  of  the  great  soldier,  which  consists  very 
largely  in  knowing  just  when  to  abandon  the 
accepted  military  axioms. 

Pressing  forward,  Grant  met  the  enemy,  num- 
bering between  seven  and  eight  thousand,  at 
Raymond,  and  readily  defeated  them.  He  then 
marched  on  toward  Jackson,  fighting  another  ac- 


GRANT    AND    THE    VICKSBURG    CAMPAIGN      245 

tion  at  Clinton,  and  at  Jackson  he  struck  General 
Joseph  Johnston,  who  had  arrived  at  that  point 
to  take  command  of  all  the  rebel  forces.  John- 
ston had  with  him,  at  the  moment,  about  eleven 
thousand  men,  and  stood  his  ground.  There  was 
a  sharp  fight,  but  Grant  easily  defeated  the  enemy, 
and  took  possession  of  the  town.  This  was  an  im- 
portant point,  for  Jackson  was  the  capital  of  the 
State  of  Mississippi,  and  was  a  base  of  military  sup- 
plies. Grant  destroyed  the  factories  and  the  muni- 
tions of  war  which  were  gathered  there,  and  also 
came  into  possession  of  the  line  of  railroad  which 
ran  from  Jackson  to  Vicksburg.  While  he  was  thus 
engaged,  an  intercepted  message  revealed  to  him 
the  fact  that  Pemberton,  in  accordance  with  John- 
ston's orders,  had  come  out  of  Vicksburg  with 
twenty-five  thousand  men,  and  was  moving  east- 
ward against  him.  Pemberton,  however,  instead 
of  holding  a  straight  line  against  Grant,  turned  at 
first  to  the  south,  with  the  view  of  breaking  the 
latter's  line  of  communication.  This  was  not  a 
success,  for,  as  Grant  says,  with  grim  humor,  "  I 
had  no  line  of  communication  to  break "  ;  and, 
moreover,  it  delayed  Pemberton  when  delay  was 
of  value  to  Grant  in  finishing  Johnston.  After 
this  useless  turn  to  the  southward  Pemberton  re- 
sumed his  march  to  the  east,  as  he  should  have 
done  in  the  beginning,  in  accordance  with  John- 
ston's orders;    but   Grant   was    now  more    than 


246      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

ready.  He  did  not  wait  the  coming  of  Pember- 
ton.  Leaving  Jackson  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the 
enemy's  advance  from  Vicksburg,  he  marched 
rapidly  westward  and  struck  Pemberton  at  Cham- 
pion Hills.  The  forces  were  at  this  time  very 
nearly  matched,  and  the  severest  battle  of  the 
campaign  ensued,  lasting  four  hours.  Grant,  how- 
ever, defeated  Pemberton  completely,  and  came 
very  near  capturing  his  entire  force.  With  a 
broken  army,  Pemberton  fell  back  on  Vicksburg. 
Grant  pursued  without  a  moment's  delay,  and 
came  up  with  the  rear  guard  at  Big  Black  River. 
A  sharp  engagement  followed,  and  the  Confed- 
erates were  again  defeated.  Grant  then  crossed 
the  Big  Black  and  the  next  day  was  before  Vicks- 
burg, with  his  enemy  inside  the  works. 

When  Grant  crossed  the  Mississippi  at  Bruins- 
burg  and  struck  into  the  interior,  he,  of  course, 
passed  out  of  communication  with  Washington, 
and  he  did  not  hear  from  there  again  until  May 
1 1,  when,  just  as  his  troops  were  engaging  in  the 
battle  of  Black  River  Bridge,  an  officer  appeared 
from  Port  Hudson  with  an  order  from  General 
Halleck  to  return  to  Grand  Gulf  and  thence  co- 
operate with  Banks  against  Port  Hudson.  Grant 
replied  that  the  order  came  too  late.  "  The  bearer 
of  the  despatch  insisted  that  I  ought  to  obey  the 
order,  and  was  giving  arguments  to  support  the 
position,  when  I  heard  a  great  cheering  to  the 


GRANT   AND   THE   VICKSBURG   CAMPAIGN      247 

right  of  our  line,  and  looking  in  that  direction, 
saw  Lawler,  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  leading  a  charge 
on  the  enemy.  I  immediately  mounted  my  horse 
and  rode  in  the  direction  of  the  charge,  and  saw 
no  more  of  the  officer  who  had  delivered  the  mes- 
sage ;  I  think  not  even  to  this  day."  When  Grant 
reached  Vicksburg,  there  was  no  further  talk  of 
recalling-  him  to  Grand  Gulf  or  Port  Hudson.  The 
authorities  at  Washington  then  saw  plainly  enough 
what  had  been  done  in  the  interior  of  Mississippi, 
far  from  the  reach  of  telegraphs  or  mail. 

As  soon  as  the  National  troops  reached  Vicks- 
burg an  assault  was  attempted,  but  the  place  was 
too  strong,  and  the  attack  was  repulsed,  with 
heavy  loss.  Grant  then  settled  down  to  a  siege, 
and  Lincoln  and  Halleck  now  sent  him  ample  re- 
inforcements. He  no  longer  needed  to  ask  for 
them.  His  campaign  had  explained  itself,  and  in 
a  short  time  he  had  seventy  thousand  men  under 
his  command.  His  lines  were  soon  made  so  strone 
that  it  was  impossible  for  the  defenders  of  Vicks- 
burg to  break  through  them,  and  although  John- 
ston had  gathered  troops  again  to  the  eastward, 
an  assault  from  that  quarter  on  the  National  army, 
now  so  largely  reinforced,  was  practically  out  of 
the  question.  Tighter  and  tighter  Grant  drew 
his  lines  about  the  city,  where,  every  day,  the  suf- 
fering became  more  intense.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  give  the  details  of  the  siege.    On  July  4,  1863, 


248      HERO    TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Vicksburg  surrendered,  the  Mississippi  was  in 
control  of  the  National  forces  from  its  source  to 
its-  mouth,  and  the  Confederacy  was  rent  in  twain. 
On  the  same  day  Lee  was  beaten  at  Gettysburg, 
and  these  two  great  victories  really  crushed  the 
Rebellion,  although  much  hard  fighting  remained 
to  be  done  before  the  end  was  reached. 

Grant's  campaign  against  Vicksburg  deserves 
to  be  compared  with  that  of  Napoleon  which  re- 
sulted in  the  fall  of  Ulm.  It  was  the  most  bril- 
liant single  campaign  of  the  war.  With  an  inferior 
force,  and  abandoning  his  lines  of  communica- 
tion, moving  with  a  marvelous  rapidity  through 
a  difficult  country,  Grant  struck  the  superior  forces 
of  the  enemy  on  the  line  from  Jackson  to  Vicks- 
burg. He  crushed  Johnston  before  Pemberton 
could  get  to  him,  and  he  flung  Pemberton  back 
into  Vicksburg  before  Johnston  could  rally  from 
the  defeat  which  had  been  inflicted.  With  an  in- 
ferior force,  Grant  was  superior  at  every  point  of 
contest,  and  he  won  every  fight.  Measured  by 
the  skill  displayed  and  the  result  achieved,  there 
is  no  campaign  in  our  history  which  better  de- 
serves study  and  admiration. 


ROBERT   GOULD    SHAW 


Brave,  good,  and  true, 

I  see  him  stand  before  me  now, 

And  read  again  on  that  young  brow, 

Where  every  hope  was  new, 

How  sweet  were  life  /     Yet,  by  the  mouth  firm-set, 

And  look  made  up  for  Duty's  utmost  debt, 

I  could  divine  he  knew 

That  death  within  the  sulphurous  hostile  lines, 

In  the  mere  wreck  of  nobly-pitched  designs, 

Plucks  heart's-ease,  and  not  rue. 

Right  in  the  van, 

On  the  red  rampart's  slippery  swell, 

With  heart  that  beat  a  charge,  he  fell, 

Foeward,  as  fits  a  man ; 

But  the  high  soul  burns  on  to  light  men's  feet 

Where  death  for  noble  ends  makes  dying  sweet; 

His  life  her  crescent's  span 

Orbs  full  with  share  in  their  undarkening  days 

Who  ever  climbed  the  battailous  steeps  of  praise 

Since  valor's  praise  began. 

We  bide  our  chance, 

Unhappy,  and  make  terms  with  Fate 

A  little  more  to  let  us  wait ; 

He  leads  for  aye  the  advance, 

Hope's  forlorn-hopes  that  plant  the  desperate  good 

For  nobler  Earths  and  days  of  manlier  mood ; 

Our  wall  of  circumstance 

Cleared  at  a  bound,  he  flashes  o'er  the  fight, 

A  saintly  shape  of  fame,  to  cheer  the  right 

And  steel  each  wavering  glance. 

I  write  of  one, 

While  with  dim  eyes  I  think  of  three ; 

Who  weeps  not  others  fair  and  brave  as  he  ? 

Ah,  when  the  fight  is  won, 

Dear  Land,  whom  triflers  now  make  bold  to  scorn 

(Thee  from  whose  forehead  Earth  awaits  her  morn), 

How  nobler  shall  the  sun 

Flame  in  thy  sky,  how  braver  breathe  thy  air, 

That  thou  bred'st  children  who  for  thee  could  dare 

And  die  as  thine  have  done. 

—  Lowell. 


ROBERT  GOULD  SHAW 

ROBERT  GOULD  SHAW  was  born  in  Bos- 
ton on  October  10,  1837,  the  son  of  Francis 
and  Sarah  Sturgfis  Shaw.  When  he  was  about 
nine  years  old,  his  parents  moved  to  Staten  Island, 
and  he  was  educated  there,  and  at  school  in  the 
neighborhood  of  New  York,  until  he  went  to  Eu- 
rope in  1853,  where  he  remained  traveling  and 
studying  for  the  next  three  years.  He  entered 
Harvard  College  in  1856,  and  left  at  the  end  of 
his  third  year,  in  order  to  accept  an  advantageous 
business  offer  in  New  York. 

Even  as  a  boy  he  took  much  interest  in  politics, 
and  especially  in  the  question  of  slavery.  He 
voted  for  Lincoln  in  i860,  and  at  that  time  en- 
listed as  a  private  in  the  New  York  7th  Regiment, 
feeling  that  there  was  likelihood  of  trouble,  and 
that  there  would  be  a  demand  for  soldiers  to  de- 
fend the  country.  His  foresight  was  justified  only 
too  soon,  and  on  April  19,  1861,  he  marched  with 
his  regiment  to  Washington.   The  call  for  the  7th 


252       HERO    TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

Regiment  was  only  for  thirty  days,  and  at  the  ex- 
piration of  that  service  he  applied  for  and  obtained 
a  commission  as  second  lieutenant  in  the  2d  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  left  with  that  regiment  for  Virginia 
in  July,  1 86 1.  He  threw  himself  eagerly  into  his 
new  duties,  and  soon  gained  a  good  position  in 
the  regiment.  At  Cedar  Mountain  he  was  an  aid 
on  General  Gordon's  staff,  and  was  greatly  ex- 
posed in  the  performance  of  his  duties  during  the 
action.  He  was  also  with  his  regiment  at  Antie- 
tam,  and  was  in  the  midst  of  the  heavy  fighting 
of  that  great  battle. 

Early  in  1863,  the  Government  determined  to 
form  negro  regiments,  and  Governor  Andrew 
offered  Shaw,  who  had  now  risen  to  the  rank  of 
captain,  the  colonelcy  of  one  to  be  raised  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, the  first  black  regiment  recruited  under 
State  authority.  It  was  a  great  compliment  to 
receive  this  offer,  but  Shaw  hesitated  as  to  his 
capacity  for  such  a  responsible  post.  He  first 
wrote  a  letter  declining,  on  the  ground  that  he 
did  not  feel  that  he  had  ability  enough  for  the 
undertaking,  and  then  changed  his  mind,  and  tel- 
egraphed Governor  Andrew  that  he  would  accept. 
It  is  not  easy  to  realize  it  now,  but  his  action  then 
in  accepting  this  command  required  high  moral 
courage,  of  a  kind  quite  different  from  that  which 
he  had  displayed  already  on  the  field  of  battle. 
The  prejudice  against  the  blacks  was  still  strong 


ROBERT    GOULD    SHAW  253 

even  in  the  North.  There  was  a  great  deal  of 
feeling  among  certain  classes  against  enlisting 
black  regiments  at  all,  and  the  officers  who  un- 
dertook to  recruit  and  lead  negroes  were  exposed 
to  much  attack  and  criticism.  Shaw  felt,  however, 
that  this  very  opposition  made  it  all  the  more  in- 
cumbent on  him  to  undertake  the  duty.  He 
wrote  on  February  8  : 

After  I  have  undertaken  this  work,  I  shall  feel  that  what  I 
have  to  do  is  to  prove  that  the  negro  can  be  made  a  good  sol- 
dier. ...  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  undertaking  will 
not  meet  with  so  much  opposition  as  was  at  first  supposed.  All 
sensible  men  in  the  army,  of  all  parties,  after  a  little  thought, 
say  that  it  is  the  best  thing  that  can  be  done,  and  surely  those 
at  home  who  are  not  brave  or  patriotic  enough  to  enlist  should 
not  ridicule  or  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  men  who  are  going 
to  fight  for  them.  There  is  a  great  prejudice  against  it,  but 
now  that  it  has  become  a  government  matter,  that  will  probably 
wear  away.  At  any  rate  I  sha'n't  be  frightened  out  of  it  by  its 
unpopularity.  I  feel  convinced  I  shall  never  regret  having 
taken  this  step,  as  far  as  I  myself  am  concerned ;  for  while  I 
was  undecided,  I  felt  ashamed  of  myself  as  if  I  were  cowardly. 

Colonel  Shaw  went  at  once  to  Boston,  after  ac- 
cepting his  new  duty,  and  began  the  work  of 
raising  and  drilling  the  54th  Regiment.  He  met 
with  great  success,  for  he  and  his  officers  labored 
heart  and  soul,  and  the  regiment  repaid  their  ef- 
forts. On  March  30,  he  wrote  :  "  The  mustering 
officer  who  was  here  to-day  is  a  Virginian,  and 
has  always  thought  it  was  a  great  joke  to  try  to 


254       HERO    TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

make  soldiers  of  '  niggers,'  but  he  tells  me  now 
that  he  has  never  mustered  in  so  fine  a  set  of 
men,  though  about  twenty  thousand  had  passed 
through  his  hands  since  September."  On  May 
28,  Colonel  Shaw  left  Boston,  and  his  march 
through  the  city  was  a  triumph.  The  appearance 
of  his  regiment  made  a  profound  impression,  and 
was  one  of  the  events  of  the  war  which  those  who 
saw  it  never  forgot. 

The  regiment  was  ordered  to  South  Carolina, 
and  when  they  were  off  Cape  Hatteras,  Colonel 
Shaw  wrote  : 

The  more  I  think  of  the  passage  of  the  54th  through  Bos- 
ton, the  more  wonderful  it  seems  to  me.  Just  remember  our 
own  doubts  and  fears,  and  other  people's  sneering  and  pitying 
remarks  when  we  began  last  winter,  and  then  look  at  the  per- 
fect triumph  of  last  Thursday.  We  have  gone  quietly  along, 
forming  the  first  regiment,  and  at  last  left  Boston  amidst  greater 
enthusiasm  than  has  been  seen  since  the  first  three  months' 
troops  left  for  the  war.  Truly,  I  ought  to  be  thankful  for  all 
my  happiness  and  my  success  in  life  so  far ;  and  if  the  raising 
of  colored  troops  prove  such  a  benefit  to  the  country  and  to 
the  blacks  as  many  people  think  it  will,  I  shall  thank  God  a 
thousand  times  that  I  was  led  to  take  my  share  in  it. 

He  had,  indeed,  taken  his  share  in  striking  one 
of  the  most  fatal  blows  to  the  barbarism  of  slavery 
which  had  yet  been  struck.  The  formation  of  the 
black  regiments  did  more  for  the  emancipation  of 
the  negro  and  the  recognition  of  his  rights,  than 
almost   anything  else.      It  was  impossible,  after 


'-  - 


COLONEL  ROBERT  GOULD  SHAW. 


ROBERT   GOULD   SHAW  257 

that,  to  say  that  men  who  fought  and  gave  their 
lives  for  the  Union  and  for  their  own  freedom 
were  not  -entitled  to  be  free.  The  acceptance  of 
the  command  of  a  black  regiment  by  such  men 
as  Shaw  and  his  fellow-officers  was  the  great  act 
which  made  all  this  possible. 

After  reaching  South  Carolina,  Colonel  Shaw 
was  with  his  regiment  at  Port  Royal  and  on  the 
islands  of  that  coast  for  rather  more  than  a  month, 
and  on  July  18  he  was  offered  the  post  of  honor 
in  an  assault  upon  Fort  Wagner,  which  was  or- 
dered for  that  night.  He  had  proved  that  the 
negroes  could  be  made  into  a  good  regiment,  and 
now  the  second  great  opportunity  had  come,  to 
prove  their  fighting  quality.  He  wanted  to  de- 
monstrate that  his  men  could  fight  side  by  side 
with  white  soldiers,  and  show  to  somebody  beside 
their  officers  what  stuff  they  were  made  of.  He, 
therefore,  accepted  the  dangerous  duty  with  glad- 
ness. Late  in  the  day  the  troops  were  marched 
across  Folly  and  Morris  islands  and  formed  in  line 
of  battle  within  six  hundred  yards  of  Fort  Wagner. 
At  half-past  seven  the  order  for  the  charge  was 
given,  and  the  regiment  advanced.  When  they 
were  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  fort,  the  rebel 
fire  opened  with  such  effect  that  the  first  battalion 
hesitated  and  wavered.  Colonel  Shaw  sprang  to 
the  front,  and  waving  his  sword,  shouted  :  "  For- 
ward, 54th!  "  With  another  cheer,  the  men  rushed 


258       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

through  the  ditch,  and  gained  a  parapet  on  the 
right.  Colonel  Shaw  was  one  of  the  first  to  scale 
the  walls.  As  he  stood  erect,  a  noble  figure,  or- 
dering his  men  forward  and  shouting  to  them  to 
press  on,  he  was  shot  dead  and  fell  into  the  fort. 
After  his  fall,  the  assault  was  repulsed. 

General  Haywood,  commanding  the  rebel  for- 
ces, said  to  a  Union  prisoner:  "I  knew  Colonel 
Shaw  before  the  war,  and  then  esteemed  him. 
Had  he  been  in  command  of  white  troops,  I  should 
have  given  him  an  honorable  burial.  As  it  is,  I 
shall  bury  him  in  the  common  trench,  with  the 
negroes  that  fell  with  him."  He  little  knew  that 
he  was  giving  the  dead  soldier  the  most  hon- 
orable burial  that  man  could  have  devised,  for 
the  savage  words  told  unmistakably  that  Robert 
Shaw's  work  had  not  been  in  vain.  The  order  to 
bury  him  with  his  "  niggers,"  which  ran  through 
the  North  and  remained  fixed  in  our  history, 
showed,  in  a  flash  of  light,  the  hideous  barbarism 
of  a  system  which  made  such  things  and  such 
feelings  possible.  It  also  showed  that  slavery 
was  wounded  to  the  death,  and  that  the  brutal 
phrase  was  the  angry  snarl  of  a  dying  tiger.  Such 
words  rank  with  the  action  of  Charles  Stuart, 
when  he  had  the  bones  of  Oliver  Cromwell  and 
Robert  Blake  torn  from  their  graves  and  flung 
on  dunghills  or  fixed  on  Temple  Bar. 

Robert  Shaw  fell  in  battle  at  the  head  of  his 


ROBERT    GOULD    SHAW  259 

men,  giving  his  life  to  his  country,  as  did  many 
another  gallant  man  during  those  four  years  of 
conflict.  But  he  did  something  more  than  this. 
He  faced  prejudice  and  hostility  in  the  North, 
and  confronted  the  blind  and  savage  rage  of  the 
South,  in  order  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  that 
the  human  beings  who  were  held  in  bondage 
could  vindicate  their  right  to  freedom  by  fighting 
and  dying  for  it.  He  helped  mightily  in  the  great 
task  of  destroying  human  slavery,  and  in  uplifting 
an  oppressed  and  down-trodden  race.  He  brought 
to  this  work  the  qualities  which  were  particularly 
essential  for  his  success.  He  had  all  that  birth 
and  wealth,  breeding,  education,  and  tradition 
could  give.  He  offered  up,  in  full  measure,  all 
those  things  which  make  life  most  worth  living. 
He  was  handsome  and  beloved.  He  had  a  serene 
and  beautiful  nature,  and  was  at  once  brave  and 
simple.  Above  all  things,  he  was  fitted  for  the 
task  which  he  performed  and  for  the  sacrifice 
which  he  made.  The  call  of  the  country  and  of 
the  time  came  to  him,  and  he  was  ready.  He  has 
been  singled  out  for  remembrance  from  among 
many  others  of  equal  sacrifice,  and  a  monument 
is  rising  to  his  memory  in  Boston,  because  it  was 
his  peculiar  fortune  to  live  and  die  for  a  great 
principle  of  humanity,  and  to  stand  forth  as  an 
ideal  and  beautiful  figure  in  a  struggle  where  the 
onward  march  of  civilization  was  at  stake.      He 


260       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

lived  in  those  few  and  crowded  years  a  heroic  life, 
and  he  met  a  heroic  death.  When  he  fell,  sword 
in 'hand,  on  the  parapet  of  Wagner,  leading  his 
black  troops  in  a  desperate  assault,  we  can  only- 
say  of  him  as  Bunyan  said  of  ' '  Valiant  for  Truth  "  : 
"And  then  he  passed  over,  and  all  the  trumpets 
sounded  for  him  on  the  other  side." 


CHARLES    RUSSELL    LOWELL 


Wut  's  wurds  to  them  whose  faith  an'  truth 

On  war's  red  techstone  rang  true  metal, 
Who  ventered  life  an'  love  an'  youth 

For  the  gret  prize  o'  death  in  battle  ? 
To  him  who,  deadly  hurt,  agen 

Flashed  on  afore  the  charge's  thunder, 
Tippin'  with  fire  the  bolt  of  men 

Thet  rived  the  rebel  line  asunder  ? 

— Lowell. 


CHARLES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 


CHARLES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  was  born 
in  Boston,  January  2,  1835.  He  was  the 
eldest  son  of  Charles  Russell  and  Anna  Cabot 
(Jackson)  Lowell,  and  the  nephew  of  James  Rus- 
sell Lowell.  He  bore  the  name,  distinguished  in 
many  branches,  of  a  family  which  was  of  the  best 
New  England  stock.  Educated  in  the  Boston 
public  schools,  he  entered  Harvard  College  in 
1850.  Although  one  of  the  youngest  members 
of  his  class,  he  went  rapidly  to  the  front,  and 
graduated  not  only  the  first  scholar  of  his  year, 
but  the  foremost  man  of  his  class.  He  was,  how- 
ever, much  more  than  a  fine  scholar,  for  even  then 
he  showed  unusual  intellectual  qualities.  He  read 
widely  and  loved  letters.  He  was  a  student  of 
philosophy  and  religion,  a  thinker,  and,  best  of 
all,  a  man  of  ideals — "the  glory  of  youth,"  as  he 
called  them  in  his  valedictory  oration.  But  he 
was  something  still  better  and  finer  than  a  mere 

idealist ;  he  was  a  man  of  action,  eager  to  put  his 

263 


264       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

ideals  into  practice  and  bring  them  to  the  test  of 
daily  life.  With  his  mind  full  of  plans  for  raising 
the  condition  of  workingmen  while  he  made  his 
own  career,  he  entered  the  iron  mills  of  the  Ames 
Company,  at  Chicopee.  Here  he  remained  as 
a  workingman  for  six  months,  and  then  received 
an  important  post  in  the  Trenton  Iron  Works  of 
New  Jersey.  There  his  health  broke  down.  Con- 
sumption threatened  him,  and  all  his  bright  hopes 
and  ambitions  were  overcast  and  checked.  He 
was  obliged  to  leave  his  business  and  go  to  Eu- 
rope, where  he  traveled  for  two  years,  fighting 
the  dread  disease  that  was  upon  him.  In  1858 
he  returned,  and  took  a  position  on  a  Western 
railroad.  Although  the  work  was  new  to  him, 
he  manifested  the  same  capacity  that  he  had  al- 
ways shown,  and  more  especially  his  power  over 
other  men  and  his  ability  in  organization.  In  two 
years  his  health  was  reestablished,  and  in  i860 
he  took  charge  of  the  Mount  Savage  Iron  Works, 
at  Cumberland,  Maryland.  He  was  there  when 
news  came  of  the  attack  made  by  the  mob  upon 
the  6th  Massachusetts  Regiment,  in  Baltimore. 
Two  days  later  he  had  made  his  way  to  Washing- 
ton, one  of  the  first  comers  from  the  North,  and 
at  once  applied  for  a  commission  in  the  regular 
army.  While  he  was  waiting,  he  employed  him- 
self in  looking  after  the  Massachusetts  troops, 
and  also,  it  is  understood,  as  a  scout  for  the  Gov- 


CHARLES   RUSSELL   LOWELL  265 

ernment,  dangerous  work  which  suited  his  bold 
and  adventurous  nature. 

In  May  he  received  his  commission  as  captain 
in  the  United  States  cavalry.  Employed  at  first 
in  recruiting  and  then  in  drill,  he  gave  himself  up 
to  the  study  of  tactics  and  the  science  of  war.  The 
career  above  all  others  to  which  he  was  suited 
had  come  to  him.  The  field,  at  last,  lay  open  be- 
fore him,  where  all  his  great  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart — his  high  courage,  his  power  of  leadership 
and  of  organization,  and  his  intellectual  powers 
—  could  find  full  play.  He  moved  rapidly  for- 
ward, just  as  he  had  already  done  in  college  and 
in  business.  His  regiment,  in  1862,  was  under 
Stoneman  in  the  Peninsula,  and  was  engaged  in 
many  actions,  where  Lowell's  cool  bravery  made 
him  constantly  conspicuous.  At  the  close  of  the 
campaign  he  was  brevetted  major,  for  distin- 
guished services  at  Williamsburg  and  Slatersville. 

In  July,  Lowell  was  detailed  for  duty  as  an  aid 
to  General  McClellan.  At  Malvern  Hill  and 
South  Mountain  his  gallantry  and  efficiency  were 
strongly  shown,  but  it  was  at  Antietam  that  he 
distinguished  himself  most.  Sent  with  orders  to 
General  Sedgwick's  division,  he  found  it  retreat- 
ing in  confusion,  under  a  hot  fire.  He  did  not 
stop  to  think  of  orders,  but  rode  rapidly  from 
point  to  point  of  the  line,  rallying  company  after 
company  by  the  mere  force  and  power  of  his  word 


266      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY    . 

and  look,  checking  the  rout,  while  the  storm  of 
bullets  swept  all  round  him.  His  horse  was  shot 
under  him,  a  ball  passed  through  his  coat,  another 
broke  his  sword-hilt,  but  he  came  off  unscathed, 
and  his  service  was  recognized  by  his  being  sent 
to  Washington  with  the  captured  flags  of  the 
enemy. 

The  following  winter  he  was  ordered  to  Bos- 
ton, to  recruit  a  regiment  of  cavalry,  of  which  he 
was  appointed  colonel.  While  the  recruiting  was 
going  on,  a  serious  mutiny  broke  out,  but  the 
man  who,  like  Cromwell's  soldiers,  "rejoiced 
greatly  "  in  the  day  of  battle  was  entirely  capable 
of  meeting  this  different  trial.  He  shot  the  ring- 
leader dead,  and  by  the  force  of  his  own  strong 
will  quelled  the  outbreak  completely  and  at  once. 

In  May,  he  went  to  Virginia  with  his  regiment, 
where  he  was  engaged  in  resisting  and  following 
Mosby,  and  the  following  summer  he  was  opposed 
to  General  Early  in  the  neighborhood  of  Wash- 
ington. On  July  14,  when  on  a  reconnoissance, 
his  advance  guard  was  surprised,  and  he  met 
them  retreating  in  wild  confusion,  with  the  enemy 
at  their  heels.  Riding  into  the  midst  of  the  fuo-i- 
tives,  Lowell  shouted,  "Dismount!"  The  sharp 
word  of  command,  the  presence  of  the  man  him- 
self, and  the  magic  of  discipline  prevailed.  The 
men  sprang  down,  drew  up  in  line,  received  the 
enemy  with  a  heavy  fire,  and  as  the  assailants 


CHARLES   RUSSELL   LOWELL  269 

wavered,  Lowell  advanced  at  once,  and  saved  the 
day. 

In  July,  he  was  put  in  command  of  the  "  Pro- 
visional Brigade,"  and  joined  the  army  of  the 
Shenandoah,  of  which  in  August  General  Sheri- 
dan took  command.  He  was  so  struck  with  Low- 
ell's work  during  the  next  month  that  in  Sep- 
tember he  put  him  in  command  of  the  "  Reserved 
Brigade,"  a  very  fine  body  of  cavalry  and  artil- 
lery. In  the  fierce  and  continuous  fighting  that 
ensued  Lowell  was  everywhere  conspicuous,  and 
in  thirteen  weeks  he  had  as  many  horses  shot 
under  him.  But  he  now  had  scope  to  show 
more  than  the  dashing  gallantry  which  distin- 
guished him  always  and  everywhere.  His  genu- 
ine military  ability,  which  surely  would  have  led 
him  to  the  front  rank  of  soldiers  had  his  life  been 
spared,  his  knowledge,  vigilance,  and  nerve  all 
now  became  apparent.  One  brilliant  action  suc- 
ceeded another,  but  the  end  was  drawing  near. 
It  came  at  last  on  the  famous  day  of  Cedar 
Creek,  when  Sheridan  rode  down  from  Winches- 
ter and  saved  the  battle.  Lowell  had  advanced 
early  in  the  morning  on  the  right,  and  his  attack 
prevented  the  disaster  on  that  wing  which  fell 
upon  the  surprised  army.  He  then  moved  to 
cover  the  retreat,  and  around  to  the  extreme  left, 
where  he  held  his  position  near  Middletown 
against  repeated  assaults.     Early  in  the  day  his 


270      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

last  horse  was  shot  under  him,  and  a  little  later, 
in  a  charge  at  one  o'clock,  he  was  struck  in  the 
right  breast  by  a  spent  ball,  which  embedded 
itself  in  the  muscles  of  the  chest.  Voice  and 
strength  left  him.  "  It  is  only  my  poor  lung," 
he  announced,  as  they  urged  him  to  go  to  the 
rear;  "you  would  not  have  me  leave  the  field 
without  having  shed  blood."  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  "poor"  lung  had  collapsed,  and  there  was 
an  internal  hemorrhage.  He  lay  thus,  under  a 
rude  shelter,  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  then 
came  the  order  to  advance  along  the  whole  line, 
the  victorious  advance  of  Sheridan  and  the  ral- 
lied army.  Lowell  was  helped  to  his  saddle. 
"  I  feel  well  now,"  he  whispered,  and,  giving 
his  orders  through  one  of  his  staff,  had  his  bri- 
gade ready  first.  Leading  the  great  charge,  he 
dashed  forward,  and,  just  when  the  fight  was 
hottest,  a  sudden  cry  went  up:  "The  colonel  is 
hit !  "  He  fell  from  the  saddle,  struck  in  the  neck 
by  a  ball  which  severed  the  spine,  and  was  borne 
by  his  officers  to  a  house  in  the  village,  where, 
clear  in  mind  and  calm  in  spirit,  he  died  a  few 
hours  afterward. 

"  I  do  not  think  there  was  a  quality,"  said  Gen- 
eral Sheridan,  "  which  I  could  have  added  to 
Lowell.  He  was  the  perfection  of  a  man  and  a 
soldier."  On  October  19,  the  very  day  on  which 
he  fell,  his  commission  was  signed  to  be  a  briga- 
dier-general. 


CHARLES   RUSSELL   LOWELL  271 

This  was  a  noble  life  and  a  noble  death,  worthy 
of  much  thought  and  admiration  from  all  men. 
Yet  this  is  not  all.  It  is  well  for  us  to  see  how 
such  a  man  looked  upon  what  he  was  doing,  and 
what  it  meant  to  him.  Lowell  was  one  of  the 
silent  heroes  so  much  commended  by  Carlyle. 
He  never  wrote  of  himself  or  his  own  exploits. 
As  some  one  well  said,  he  had  "  the  impersonality 
of  genius."  But  in  a  few  remarkable  passages  in 
his  private  letters,  we  can  see  how  the  meaning 
of  life  and  of  that  great  time  unrolled  itself  before 
his  inner  eyes.      In  June,  1861,  he  wrote  : 

I  cannot  say  I  take  any  great  pleasure  in  the  contemplation 
of  the  future.  I  fancy  you  feel  much  as  I  do  about  the  profit- 
ableness of  a  soldier's  life,  and  would  not  think  of  trying  it, 
were  it  not  for  a  muddled  and  twisted  idea  that  somehow  or 
other  this  fight  was  going  to  be  one  in  which  decent  men  ought 
to  engage  for  the  sake  of  humanity, —  I  use  the  word  in  its  or- 
dinary sense.  It  seems  to  me  that  within  a  year  the  slavery 
question  will  again  take  a  prominent  place,  and  that  many  cases 
will  arise  in  which  we  may  get  fearfully  in  the  wrong  if  we  put 
our  cause  wholly  in  the  hands  of  fighting  men  and  foreign 
legions. 

In  June,  1863,  he  wrote: 

I  wonder  whether  my  theories  about  self-culture,  etc.,  would 
ever  have  been  modified  so  much,  whether  I  should  ever  have 
seen  what  a  necessary  failure  they  lead  to,  had  it  not  been  for 
this  war.  Now  I  feel  every  day,  more  and  more,  that  a  man 
has  no  right  to  himself  at  all ;  that,  indeed,  he  can  do  nothing 
useful  unless  he  recognizes  this  clearly. 


272       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Here  again,  on  July  3,  is  a  sentence  which  it  is 
well  to  take  to  heart,  and  for  all  men  to  remember 
when  their  ears  are  deafened  with  the  cry  that 
war,  no  matter  what  the  cause,  is  the  worst  thing 
possible,  because  it  interferes  with  comfort,  trade, 
and  money-making:  "Wars  are  bad,"  Lowell 
writes,  "but  there  are  many  things  far  worse. 
Anything  immediately  comfortable  in  our  affairs 
I  don't  see ;  but  comfortable  times  are  not  the 
ones  that  make  a  nation  great."  On  July  24,  he 
says : 

Many  nations  fail,  that  one  may  become  great;  ours  will 
fail,  unless  we  gird  up  our  loins  and  do  humble  and  honest 
days'  work,  without  trying  to  do  the  thing  by  the  job,  or  to  get 
a  great  nation  made  by  a  patent  process.  It  is  not  safe  to  say 
that  we  shall  not  have  victories  till  we  are  ready  for  them.  We 
shall  have  victories,  and  whether  or  no  we  are  ready  for  them 
depends  upon  ourselves ;  if  we  are  not  ready,  we  shall  fail, — 
voila  tout.  If  you  ask,  what  if  we  do  fail  ?  I  have  nothing  to 
say ;  I  should  n't  cry  over  a  nation  or  two,  more  or  less,  gone 
under. 

Finally,  on  September  10,  a  little  more  than  a 
month  before  his  death,  he  wrote  to  a  disabled 
officer : 

I  hope  that  you  are  going  to  live  like  a  plain  republican, 
mindful  of  the  beauty  and  of  the  duty  of  simplicity.  Nothing 
fancy  now,  sir,  if  you  please ;  it 's  disreputable  to  spend  money 
when  the  government  is  so  hard  up,  and  when  there  are  so  many 
poor  officers.  I  hope  that  you  have  outgrown  all  foolish  ambi- 
tions, and  are  now  content  to  become  a  "  useful  citizen."  Don't 


CHARLES   RUSSELL   LOWELL  273 

grow  rich ;  if  you  once  begin,  you  will  find  it  much  more  diffi- 
cult to  be  a  useful  citizen.  Don't  seek  office,  but  don't  "  disre- 
member  "  that  the  "  useful  citizen  "  always  holds  his  time,  his 
trouble,  his  money,  and  his  life  ready  at  the  hint  of  his  country. 
The  useful  citizen  is  a  mighty,  unpretending  hero;  but  we  are 
not  going  to  have  any  country  very  long,  unless  such  heroism 
is  developed.  There,  what  a  stale  sermon  I  'm  preaching.  But, 
being  a  soldier,  it  does  seem  to  me  that  I  should  like  nothing 
so  well  as  being  a  useful  citizen.  Well,  trying  to  be  one,  I 
mean.  I  shall  stay  in  the  service,  of  course,  till  the  war  is 
over,  or  till  I  'm  disabled ;  but  then  I  look  forward  to  a  pleas- 
anter  career. 

I  believe  I  have  lost  all  my  ambitions.  I  don't  think  I  would 
turn  my  hand  to  be  a  distinguished  chemist  or  a  famous  math- 
ematician. All  I  now  care  about  is  to  be  a  useful  citizen,  with 
money  enough  to  buy  bread  and  firewood,  and  to  teach  my 
children  to  ride  on  horseback,  and  look  strangers  in  the  face, 
especially  Southern  strangers. 

There  are  profound  and  lofty  lessons  of  patriot- 
ism and  conduct  in  these  passages,  and  a  very- 
noble  philosophy  of  life  and  duty  both  as  a  man 
and  as  a  citizen  of  a  great  republic.  They  throw 
a  flood  of  light  on  the  great  underlying  forces 
which  enabled  the  American  people  to  save  them- 
selves in  that  time  of  storm  and  stress.  They  are 
the  utterances  of  a  very  young  man,  not  thirty 
years  old  when  he  died  in  battle,  but  much  be- 
yond thirty  in  head  and  heart,  tried  and  taught 
as  he  had  been  in  a  great  war.  What  precisely 
such  young  men  thought  they  were  fighting  for  is 
put  strikingly  by  Lowell's  younger  brother  James, 


274      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

who  was  killed  at  Glendale,  July  4,  1862.  In  1861, 
James  Lowell  wrote  to  his  classmates,  who  had 
given  him  a  sword  : 

Those  who  died  for  the  cause,  not  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws, —  a  superficial  cause,  the  rebels  have  now  the  same, 
— but  of  civilization  and  law,  and  the  self-restrained  freedom 
which  is  their  result.  As  the  Greeks  at  Marathon  and  Salamis, 
Charles  Martel  and  the  Franks  at  Tours,  and  the  Germans  at 
the  Danube,  saved  Europe  from  Asiatic  barbarism,  so  we,  at 
places  to  be  famous  in  future  times,  shall  have  saved  America 
from  a  similar  tide  of  barbarism;  and  we  may  hope  to  be 
purified  and  strengthened  ourselves  by  the  struggle. 

This  is  a  remarkable  passage  and  a  deep 
thought.  Coming  from  a  young  fellow  of  twenty- 
four,  it  is  amazing.  But  the  fiery  trial  of  the  times 
taught  fiercely  and  fast,  and  James  Lowell,  just 
out  of  college,  could  see  in  the  red  light  around 
him  that  not  merely  the  freedom  of  a  race  and 
the  saving  of  a  nation  were  at  stake,  but  that  be- 
hind all  this  was  the  forward  movement  of  civili- 
zation, brought  once  again  to  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword.  Slavery  was  barbarous  and  barbarizing. 
It  had  draofsred  down  the  civilization  of  the  South 
to  a  level  from  which  it  would  take  Generations  to 
rise  up  again.  Was  this  barbarous  force  now  to 
prevail  in  the  United  States  in  the  nineteenth 
century?  Was  it  to  destroy  a  great  nation,  and 
fetter  human  progress  in  the  New  World  ?  That 
was    the    great    question    back    of,    beyond  and 


CHARLES   RUSSELL   LOWELL  275 

above  all.  Should  this  force  of  barbarism  sweep 
conquering-  over  the  land,  wrecking  an  empire 
in  its  onward  march,  or  should  it  be  flung  back 
as  Miltiades  flung  back  Asia  at  Marathon,  and 
Charles  Martel  stayed  the  coming  of  Islam  at 
Tours  ?  The  brilliant  career,  the  shining  courage, 
best  seen  always  where  the  dead  were  lying  thick- 
est, the  heroic  death  of  Charles  Lowell,  are  good 
for  us  all  to  know  and  to  remember.  Yet  this 
imperfect  story  of  his  life  has  not  been  placed  here 
for  these  things  alone.  Many  thousand  others, 
officers  and  soldiers  alike,  in  the  great  Civil  War 
gave  their  lives  as  freely  as  he,  and  brought  to 
the  service  of  their  country  the  best  that  was  in 
them.  He  was  a  fine  example  of  many  who,  like 
him,  offered  up  all  they  had  for  their  country.  But 
Lowell  was  also  something  more  than  this.  He 
was  a  high  type  of  a  class,  and  a  proof  of  certain 
very  important  things,  and  this  is  a  point  worthy 
of  much  consideration. 

The  name  of  John  Hampden  stands  out  in  the 
history  of  the  English-speaking  people,  admired 
and  unquestioned.  He  was  neither  a  great  states- 
man, nor  a  great  soldier  ;  he  was  not  a  brilliant 
orator,  nor  a  famous  writer.  He  fell  bravely  in 
an  unimportant  skirmish  at  Chalgrove  Field,  fight- 
ing for  freedom  and  what  he  believed  to  be  riodit. 
Yet  he  fills  a  great  place  in  the  past,  both  for 
what  he  did  and  what  he  was,  and  the  reason  for 


276      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

this  is  of  high  importance.  John  Hampden  was 
a  gentleman,  with  all  the  advantages  that  the  ac- 
cidents of  birth  could  give.  He  was  rich,  educated, 
well  born,  of  high  traditions.  English  civilization 
of  that  day  could  produce  nothing  better.  The 
memorable  fact  is  that,  when  the  time  came  for 
the  test,  he  did  not  fail.  He  was  a  type  of  what 
was  best  among  the  English  people,  and  when 
the  call  sounded,  he  was  ready.  He  was  brave, 
honest,  high-minded,  and  he  gave  all,  even  his 
life,  to  his  country.  In  the  hour  of  need,  the  rep- 
resentative of  what  was  best  and  most  fortunate 
in  England  was  put  to  the  touch,  and  proved  to 
be  current  gold.  All  men  knew  what  that  meant, 
and  Hampden's  memory  is  one  of  the  glories  of 
the  English-speaking  people. 

Charles  Lowell  has  the  same  meaning  for  us 
when  rightly  understood.  He  had  all  that  birth, 
breeding,  education,  and  tradition  could  give. 
The  resources  of  our  American  life  and  civilization 
could  produce  nothing  better.  How  would  he 
and  such  men  as  he  stand  the  great  ordeal  when 
it  came  ?  If  wealth,  education,  and  breeding  were 
to  result  in  a  class  who  could  only  carp  and  criti- 
cize, accumulate  money,  give  way  to  self-indul- 
gence, and  cherish  low  foreign  ideals,  then  would 
it  have  appeared  that  there  was  a  radical  unsound- 
ness in  our  society,  refinement  would  have  been 
proved  to  be  weakness,  and  the  highest  education 


CHARLES   RUSSELL   LOWELL  277 

would  have  been  shown  to  be  a  curse,  rather  than 
a  blessing.  But  Charles  Lowell,  and  hundreds  of 
others  like  him,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  all  over 
the  land,  met  the  great  test  and.  emerged  trium- 
phant. The  Harvard  men  may  be  taken  as  fairly 
representing  the  colleges  and  universities  of 
America.  Harvard  had,  in  i860,  4157  living 
graduates,  and  823  students,  presumably  over 
eighteen  years  old.  Probably  3000  of  her  stu- 
dents and  graduates  were  of  military  age,  and  not 
physically  disqualified  for  military  service.  Of 
this  number,  1230  entered  the  Union  army  or 
navy.  One  hundred  and  fifty-six  died  in  service, 
and  67  were  killed  in  action.  Many  did  not  go 
who  might  have  gone,  unquestionably,  but  the  rec- 
ord is  a  noble  one.  Nearly  one  man  of  every  two 
Harvard  men  came  forward  to  serve  his  country 
when  war  was  at  our  gates,  and  this  proportion 
holds  true,  no  doubt,  of  the  other  universities  of 
the  North.  It  is  well  for  the  country,  well  for 
learning,  well  for  our  civilization,  that  such  a 
record  was  made  at  such  a  time.  Charles  Lowell, 
and  those  like  him,  showed,  once  for  all,  that  the 
men  to  whom  fortune  had  been  kindest  were  ca- 
pable of  the  noblest  patriotism,  and  shrank  from 
no  sacrifices.  They  taught  the  lesson  which  can 
never  be  heard  too  often  —  that  the  man  to  whom 
the  accidents  of  birth  and  fortune  have  given  most 
is  the  man  who  owes  most  to  his   country.      If 


278      HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

patriotism  should  exist  anywhere,  it  should  be 
strongest  with  such  men  as  these,  and  their  service 
should  be  ever  ready.  How  nobly  Charles  Lowell 
in  this  spirit  answered  the  great  question,  his  life 
and  death,  alike  victorious,  show  to  all  men. 


SHERIDAN  AT  CEDAR   CREEK 


Inspired  repulsed  battalions  to  engage, 

And  taught  the  doubtful  battle  where  to  rage. 

— Addison. 


SHERIDAN  AT  CEDAR  CREEK 

GENERAL  SHERIDAN  took  command  of 
the  Army  of  the  Shenandoah  in  August, 
1864.  His  coming  was  the  signal  for  aggressive 
fighting,  and  for  a  series  of  brilliant  victories  over 
the  rebel  army.  He  defeated  Early  at  Winches- 
ter and  again  at  Fisher's  Hill,  while  General  Tor- 
bert  whipped  Rosser  in  a  subsequent  action,  where 
the  rout  of  the  rebels  was  so  complete  that  the 
fight  was  known  as  the  "  Woodstock  races." 
Sheridan's  plan  after  this  was  to  terminate  his 
campaign  north  of  Staunton,  and,  returning  thence, 
to  desolate  the  Valley,  so  as  to  make  it  untenable 
for  the  Confederates,  as  well  as  useless  as  a  gran- 
ary or  storehouse,  and  then  move  the  bulk  of  his 
army  through  Washington,  and  unite  them  with 
General  Grant  in  front  of  Petersburg.  Grant, 
however,  and  the  authorities  at  Washington,  were 
in  favor  of  Sheridan's  driving  Early  into  Eastern 
Virginia,  and  following  up  that  line,  which  Sheri- 
dan himself  believed  to  be  a  false  move.  This 
important  matter  was  in  debate  until  October  16, 
when  Sheridan,  having  left  the  main  body  of  his 


282      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

army  at  Cedar  Creek  under  General  Wright,  de- 
termined to  go  to  Washington,  and  discuss  the 
question  personally  with  General  Halleck  and  the 
Secretary  of  War.  He  reached  Washington  on 
the  morning  of  the  1 7th  about  eight  o'clock,  left 
there  at  twelve,  and  got  back  to  Martinsburg  the 
same  night  about  dark.  At  Martinsburg  he  spent 
the  night,  and  the  next  day,  with  his  escort,  rode 
to  Winchester,  reaching  that  point  between  three 
and  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  18th.  He 
there  heard  that  all  was  quiet  at  Cedar  Creek  and 
along  the  front,  and  went  to  bed,  expecting  to 
reach  his  headquarters  and  join  the  army  the  next 
day. 

About  six  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  the  19th, 
it  was  reported  to  him  that  artillery  firing  could 
be  heard  in  the  direction  of  Cedar  Creek,  but  as 
the  sound  was  stated  to  be  irregular  and  fitful,  he 
thought  it  only  a  skirmish.  He,  nevertheless, 
arose  at  once,  and  had  just  finished  dressing  when 
another  officer  came  in,  and  reported  that  the  firing 
was  still  going  on  in  the  same  direction,  but  that 
it  did  not  sound  like  a  general  battle.  Still  Sher- 
idan was  uneasy,  and,  after  breakfasting,  mounted 
his  horse  between  eight  and  nine  o'clock,  and 
rode  slowly  through  Winchester.  When  he 
reached  the  edge  of  the  town  he  halted  a  moment, 
and  then  heard  the  firing  of  artillery  in  an  unceas- 
ing roar.      He  now  felt  confident  that  a  general 


SHERIDAN   AT   CEDAR   CREEK  283 

battle  was  in  progress,  and,  as  he  rode  forward, 
he  was  convinced,  from  the  rapid  increase  of 
the  sound,  that  his  army  was  falling  back.  After 
he  had  crossed  Mill  Creek,  just  outside  Winches- 
ter, and  made  the  crest  of  the  rise  beyond  the 
stream,  there  burst  upon  his  view  the  spectacle 
of  a  panic-stricken  army.  Hundreds  of  slightly 
wounded  men,  with  hundreds  more  unhurt,  but 
demoralized,  together  with  baggage  wagons  and 
trains,  were  all  pressing  to  the  rear,  in  hopeless 
confusion. 

There  was  no  doubt  now  that  a  disaster  had 
occurred  at  the  front.  A  fugitive  told  Sheridan 
that  the  army  was  broken  and  in  full  retreat,  and 
that  all  was  lost.  Sheridan  at  once  sent  word  to 
Colonel  Edwards,  commanding-  a  brigade  at  Win- 
Chester,  to  stretch  his  troops  across  the  valley, 
and  stop  all  fugitives.  His  first  idea  was  to  make 
a  stand  there,  but,  as  he  rode  along,  a  different 
plan  flashed  into  his  mind.  He  believed  that  his 
troops  had  great  confidence  in  him,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  try  to  restore  their  broken  ranks,  and, 
instead  of  merely  holding  the  ground  at  Winches- 
ter, to  rally  his  army,  and  lead  them  forward  again 
to  Cedar  Creek.  He  had  hardly  made  up  his 
mind  to  this  course,  when  news  was  brought  to 
him  that  his  headquarters  at  Cedar  Creek  were 
captured,  and  the  troops  dispersed.  He  started 
at  once,  with  about  twenty  men  as  an  escort,  and 


284      HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

rode  rapidly  to  the  front.  As  he  passed  along, 
the  unhurt  men,  who  thickly  lined  the  road,  recog- 
nized him,  and,  as  they  did  so,  threw  up  their 
hats,  shouldered  their  muskets,  and  followed  him 
as  fast  as  they  could  on  foot.  His  officers  rode 
out  on  either  side  to  tell  the  stragglers  that  the 
general  had  returned,  and,  as  the  news  spread, 
the  retreating  men  in  every  direction  rallied,  and 
turned  their  faces  toward  the  battle-field  they  had 
left. 

In  his  memoirs,  Sheridan  says,  in  speaking  of 
his  ride  through  the  retreating  troops :  "I  said 
nothing,  except  to  remark,  as  I  rode  among  them, 
'If  I  had  been  with  you  this  morning,  this  disas- 
ter would  not  have  happened.  We  must  face 
the  other  way.  We  will  go  back  and  recover  our 
camp.' "  Thus  he  galloped  on  over  the  twenty 
miles,  with  the  men  rallying  behind  him,  and  fol- 
lowing him  in  ever  increasing  numbers.  As  he 
went  by,  the  panic  of  retreat  was  replaced  by  the 
ardor  of  battle.  Sheridan  had  not  overestimated 
the  power  of  enthusiasm  or  his  own  ability  to  rouse 
it  to  fighting  pitch.  He  pressed  steadily  on  to 
the  front,  until  at  last  he  came  up  to  Getty's  divi- 
sion of  the  6th  Corps,  which,  with  the  cavalry, 
were  the  only  troops  who  held  their  line  and  were 
resisting  the  enemy.  Getty's  division  was  about 
a  mile  north  of  Middletown  on  some  slightly  rising 
ground,  and  were  skirmishing  with  the  enemy's 


(^/^l^r^^S^ 


SHERIDAN   AT    CEDAR   CREEK  287 

pickets.  Jumping  a  rail  fence,  Sheridan  rode  to 
the  crest  of  the  hill,  and,  as  he  took  off  his  hat, 
the  men  rose  up  from  behind  the  barricades  with 
cheers  of  recognition. 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  in  detail  Sheridan's 
actions  from  that  moment,  but  he  first  brought  up 
the  19th  Corps  and  the  two  divisions  of  Wright 
to  the  front.  He  then  communicated  with  Colonel 
Lowell,  who  was  fighting  near  Middletown  with 
his  men  dismounted,  and  asked  him  if  he  could 
hold  on  where  he  was,  to  which  Lowell  replied 
in  the  affirmative.  All  this  and  many  similar 
quickly-given  orders  consumed  a  great  deal  of 
time,  but  still  the  men  were  getting  into  line,  and 
at  last,  seeing  that  the  enemy  were  about  to 
renew  the  attack,  Sheridan  rode  along  the  line  so 
that  the  men  could  all  see  him.  He  was  received 
with  the  wildest  enthusiasm  as  he  rode  by,  and 
the  spirit  of  the  army  was  restored.  The  rebel 
attack  was  made  shortly  after  noon,  and  was 
repulsed  by  General  Emory. 

This  done,  Sheridan  again  set  to  work  to  get- 
ting his  line  completely  restored,  while  General 
Merritt  charged  and  drove  off  an  exposed  battery 
of  the  Confederates.  By  half-past  three  Sheridan 
was  ready  to  attack.  The  fugitives  of  the  morning, 
whom  he  had  rallied  as  he  rode  from  Winchester, 
were  again  in  their  places,  and  the  different  divi- 
sions were  all  disposed  in  their  proper  positions. 


288      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

With  the  order  to  advance,  the  whole  line  pressed 
forward.  The  Confederates  at  first  resisted  stub- 
bornly, and  then  began  to  retreat.  On  they  went 
past  Cedar  Creek,  and  there,  where  the  pike  made 
a  sharp  turn  to  the  west  toward  Fisher's  Hill, 
Merritt  and  Custer  fell  on  the  flank  of  the  retreat- 
ing columns,  and  the  rebel  army  fell  back,  routed 
and  broken,  up  the  Valley.  The  day  had  begun 
in  route  and  defeat ;  it  ended  in  a  great  victory 
for  the  Union  army. 

How  near  we  had  been  to  a  terrible  disaster  can 
be  realized  by  recalling  what  had  happened  before 
the  general  galloped  down  from  Winchester. 

In  Sheridan's  absence,  Early,  soon  after  dawn, 
had  made  an  unexpected  attack  on  our  army  at 
Cedar  Creek.  Surprised  by  the  assault,  the  na- 
tional troops  had  given  way  in  all  directions,  and 
a  panic  had  set  in.  Getty's  division  with  Lowell's 
cavalry  held  on  at  Middletown,  but,  with  this  ex- 
ception, the  rout  was  complete.  When  Sheridan 
rode  out  of  Winchester,  he  met  an  already  beaten 
army.  His  first  thought  was  the  natural  one  to 
make  a  stand  at  Winchester  and  rally  his  troops 
about  him  there.  His  second  thought  was  the 
inspiration  of  the  great  commander.  He  believed 
his  men  would  rally  as  soon  as  they  saw  him.  He 
believed  that  enthusiasm  was  one  of  the  great 
weapons  of  war,  and  that  this  was  the  moment  of 
all  others  when  it  might  be  used  with  decisive 


SHERIDAN   AT  CEDAR   CREEK  289 

advantage.  With  this  thought  in  his  mind  he 
abandoned  the  idea  of  forming  his  men  at  Win- 
chester, and  rode  bareheaded  through  the  fugi- 
tives, swinging  his  hat,  straight  for  the  front,  and 
calling  on  his  men  as  he  passed  to  follow  him. 
As  the  soldiers  saw  him,  they  turned  and  rushed 
after  him.  He  had  not  calculated  in  vain  upon 
the  power  of  personal  enthusiasm,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  he  did  not  rely  upon  any  wild  rush  to  save 
the  day.  The  moment  he  reached  the  field  of 
battle,  he  set  to  work  with  the  coolness  of  a  great 
soldier  to  make  all  the  dispositions,  first,  to  repel 
the  enemy,  and  then  to  deliver  an  attack  which 
could  not  be  resisted.  One  division  after  another 
was  rapidly  brought  into  line  and  placed  in  posi- 
tion, the  thin  ranks  filling  fast  with  the  soldiers 
who  had  recovered  from  their  panic,  and  followed 
Sheridan  and  the  black  horse  all  the  way  down 
from  Winchester.  He  had  been  already  two  hours 
on  the  field  when,  at  noon,  he  rode  along  the  line, 
again  formed  for  battle.  Most  of  the  officers  and 
men  then  thought  he  had  just  come,  while  in 
reality  it  was  his  own  rapid  work  which  had  put 
them  in  the  line  aloncr  which  he  was  riding. 

Once  on  the  field  of  battle,  the  rush  and  hurry 
of  the  desperate  ride  from  Winchester  came  to  an 
end.  First  the  line  was  reformed,  then  the  enemy's 
assault  was  repulsed,  and  it  was  made  impossible 
for  them  to  again  take  the  offensive.      But  Sheri- 


290       HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

dan,  undazzled  by  his  brilliant  success  up  to  this 
point,  did  not  mar  his  work  by  overhaste.  Two 
hours  more  passed  before  he  was  ready,  and  then, 
when  all  was  prepared,  with  his  ranks  established 
and  his  army  ranged  in  position,  he  moved  his 
whole  line  forward,  and  won  one  of  the  most  bril- 
liant battles  of  the  war,  having,  by  his  personal 
power  over  his  troops,  and  his  genius  in  action, 
snatched  a  victory  from  a  day  which  began  in 
surprise,  disaster,  and  defeat. 


LIEUTENANT   GUSHING   AND   THE 
RAM    "ALBEMARLE" 


God  give  us  peace  !     Not  such  as  lulls  to  sleep, 
But  sword  on  thigh,  and  brow  with  purpose  knit ! 
And  let  our  Ship  of  State  to  harbor  sweep, 
Her  ports  all  up,  her  battle-lanterns  lit, 
And  her  leashed  thunders  gathering  for  their  leap  ! 

— Lowell. 


LIEUTENANT  CUSHING  AND  THE  RAM 
"ALBEMARLE" 


HT^HE  great  Civil  War  was  remarkable  in  many 
X  ways,  but  in  no  way  more  remarkable  than 
for  the  extraordinary  mixture  of  inventive  mechan- 
ical genius  and  of  resolute  daring  shown  by  the 
combatants.  After  the  first  year,  when  the  con- 
testants had  settled  down  to  real  fighting,  and  the 
preliminary  mob  work  was  over,  the  battles  were 
marked  by  their  extraordinary  obstinacy  and 
heavy  loss.  In  no  European  conflict  since  the 
close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  has  the  fighting  been 
anything  like  as  obstinate  and  as  bloody  as  was 
the  fighting  in  our  own  Civil  War.  In  addition  to 
this  fierce  and  dogged  courage,  this  splendid  fight- 
ing capacity,  the  contest  also  brought  out  the 
skilled  inventive  power  of  engineer  and  mechani- 
cian in  a  way  that  few  other  contests  have  ever 
done. 

This  was  especially  true  of  the  navy.  The  fight- 
ing under  and  against  Farragut  and  his  fellow - 
admirals  revolutionized  naval  warfare.  The  Civil 
War  marks  the  break  between  the  old  style  and 
the  new.     Terrible  encounters  took  place  when 


294      HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

the  terrible  new  engines  of  war  were  brought  into 
action  for  the  first  time ;  and  one  of  these  en- 
counters has  given  an  example  which,  for  heroic 
daring  combined  with  cool  intelligence,  is  unsur- 
passed in  all  time. 

The  Confederates  showed  the  same  skill  and 
energy  in  building  their  great  ironclad  rams  as 
the  men  of  the  Union  did  in  building  the  monitors 
which  were  so  often  pitted  against  them.  Both 
sides,  but  especially  the  Confederates,  also  used 
stationary  torpedoes,  and,  on  a  number  of  occa- 
sions, torpedo-boats  likewise.  These  torpedo- 
boats  were  sometimes  built  to  go  under  the  water. 
One  such,  after  repeated  failures,  was  employed 
by  the  Confederates,  with  equal  gallantry  and 
success,  in  sinking  a  Union  sloop  of  war  off 
Charleston  harbor,  the  torpedo-boat  itself  going 
down  to  the  bottom  with  its  victim,  all  on  board 
being  drowned.  The  other  type  of  torpedo-boat 
was  simply  a  swift,  ordinary  steam-launch,  oper- 
ated above  water. 

It  was  this  last  type  of  boat  which  Lieuten- 
ant W.  B.  Cushing  brought  down  to  Albemarle 
Sound  to  use  against  the  great  Confederate  ram 
Albemarle.  The  ram  had  been  built  for  the  pur- 
pose of  destroying  the  Union  blockading  forces. 
Steaming  down  river,  she  had  twice  attacked  the 
Federal  gunboats,  and  in  each  case  had  sunk  or 
disabled  one  or  more  of  them,  with  little  injury  to 


CUSHING    AND   THE    "ALBEMARLE"  295 

herself.  She  had  retired  up  the  river  again  to  lie 
at  her  wharf  and  refit.  The  gunboats  had  suffered 
so  severely  as  to  make  it  a  certainty  that  when 
she  came  out  again,  thoroughly  fitted  to  renew 
the  attack,  the  wooden  vessels  would  be  destroyed ; 
and  while  she  was  in  existence,  the  Union  vessels 
could  not  reduce  the  forts  and  coast  towns.  Just 
at  this  time  Cushing  came  down  from  the  North 
with  his  swift  little  torpedo-boat,  an  open  launch, 
with  a  spar  rigged  out  in  front,  the  torpedo  being 
placed  at  the  end.  The  crew  of  the  launch  con- 
sisted of  fifteen  men,  Cushing  being  in  command. 
He  not  only  guided  his  craft,  but  himself  handled 
the  torpedo  by  means  of  two  small  ropes,  one  of 
which  put  it  in  place,  while  the  other  exploded  it. 
The  action  of  the  torpedo  was  complicated,  and  it 
could  not  have  been  operated  in  a  time  of  tre- 
mendous excitement  save  by  a  man  of  the  utmost 
nerve  and  self-command  ;  but  Cushing  had  both. 
He  possessed  precisely  that  combination  of  reck- 
less courage,  presence  of  mind,  and  high  mental 
capacity  necessary  to  the  man  who  leads  a  forlorn 
hope  under  peculiarly  difficult  circumstances. 

On  the  night  of  October  27,  1864,  Cushing 
slipped  away  from  the  blockading  fleet,  and 
steamed  up  river  toward  the  wharf,  a  dozen  miles 
distant,  where  the  great  ram  lay.  The  Confede- 
rates were  watchful  to  guard  against  surprise,  for 
they  feared  lest  their  foes  should  try  to  destroy 


296      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN    HISTORY 

the  ram  before  she  got  a  chance  to  come  down 
and  attack  them  again  in  the  Sound.  She  lay  un- 
der the  guns  of  a  fort,  with  a  regiment  of  troops 
ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  turn  out  and  defend 
her.  Her  own  guns  were  kept  always  clear  for 
action,  and  she  was  protected  by  a  great  boom  of 
logs  thrown  out  roundabout ;  of  which  last  defense 
the  Northerners  knew  nothing. 

Cushing  went  up-stream  with  the  utmost  cau- 
tion, and  by  good  luck  passed,  unnoticed,  a  Con- 
federate lookout  below  the  ram. 

About  midnight  he  made  his  assault.  Steaming 
quietly  on  through  the  black  water,  and  feeling 
his  way  cautiously  toward  where  he  knew  the 
town  to  be,  he  finally  made  out  the  loom  of  the 
A  Ibemarle  through  the  night,  and  at  once  drove 
at  her.  He  was  almost  upon  her  before  he  was 
discovered  ;  then  the  crew  and  the  soldiers  on  the 
wharf  opened  fire,  and,  at  the  same  moment,  he 
was  brought-to  by  the  boom,  the  existence  of 
which  he  had  not  known.  The  rifle  balls  were 
singing  round  him  as  he  stood  erect,  guiding  his 
launch,  and  he  heard  the  bustle  of  the  men  aboard 
the  ram,  and  the  noise  of  the  great  guns  as  they 
were  got  ready.  Backing  off,  he  again  went  all 
steam  ahead,  and  actually  surged  over  the  slippery 
logs  of  the  boom.  Meanwhile,  on  the  Albemarle 
the  sailors  were  running  to  quarters,  and  the  sol- 
diers were  swarming  down  to  aid  in  her  defense ; 


THE    BLOWING-UP    OF    THE    "ALBEMARLE." 


CUSHING   AND   THE    "ALBEMARLE"  299 

and  the  droning  bullets  came  always  thicker 
through  the  dark  night.  Cushing  still  stood  up- 
right in  his  little  craft,  guiding  and  controlling 
her  by  voice  and  signal,  while  in  his  hands  he 
kept  the  ropes  which  led  to  the  torpedo.  As  the 
boat  slid  forward  over  the  boom,  he  brought  the 
torpedo  full  against  the  somber  side  of  the  huge 
ram,  and  instantly  exploded  it,  almost  at  the  same 
time  that  the  pivot-gun  of  the  ram,  loaded  with 
grape,  was  fired  point-blank  at  him  not  ten  yards 
off. 

At  once  the  ram  settled,  the  launch  sinking  at 
the  same  moment,  while  Cushing  and  his  men 
swam  for  their  lives.  Most  of  them  sank  or  were 
captured,  but  Cushing  reached  mid-stream.  Hear- 
ing something  splashing  in  the  darkness,  he  swam 
toward  it,  and  found  that  it  was  one  of  his  crew. 
He  went  to  his  rescue,  and  they  kept  together  for 
some  time,  but  the  sailor's  strength  gave  out,  and 
he  finally  sank.  In  the  pitch  darkness  Cushing 
could  form  no  idea  where  he  was ;  and  when, 
chilled  through,  and  too  exhausted  to  rise  to  his 
feet,  he  finally  reached  shore,  shortly  before  dawn, 
he  found  that  he  had  swum  back  and  landed  but 
a  few  hundred  feet  below  the  sunken  ram.  All 
that  day  he  remained  within  easy  musket-shot  of 
where  his  foes  were  swarming  about  the  fort  and 
the  great  drowned  ironclad.  He  hardly  dared 
move,  and  until  the  afternoon  he  lay  without  food, 


300       HERO    TALES    FROM    AMERICAN    HISTORY 

and  without  protection  from  the  heat  or  venomous 
insects.  Then  he  managed  to  slip  unobserved 
into  the  dense  swamp,  and  began  to  make  his 
way  to  the  fleet.  Toward  evening  he  came  out 
on  a  small  stream,  near  a  camp  of  Confederate 
soldiers.  They  had  moored  to  the  bank  a  skiff, 
and,  with  equal  stealth  and  daring,  he  managed 
to  steal  this  and  to  paddle  down-stream.  Hour 
after  hour  he  paddled  on  through  the  fading  light, 
and  then  through  the  darkness.  At  last,  utterly 
worn  out,  he  found  the  squadron,  and  was  picked 
up.  At  once  the  ships  weighed  ;  and  they  speedily 
captured  every  coast  town  and  fort,  for  their 
dreaded  enemy  was  no  longer  in  the  way.  The 
fame  of  Cushing's  deed  went  all  over  the  North, 
and  his  name  will  stand  forever  among  the  bright- 
est on  the  honor-roll  of  the  American  navy. 


FARRAGUT  AT  MOBILE  BAY 


Ha,  old  ship,  do  they  thrill, 

The  brave  two  hundred  scars 

You  got  in  the  river  wars  ? 

That  were  leeched  with  clamorous  skill 

(Surgery  savage  and  hard), 

At  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard. 

How  the  guns,  as  with  cheer  and  shout, 

Our  tackle-men  hurled  them  out, 

Brought  up  in  the  waterways 

.    .    .    As  we  fired,  at  the  flash 

'T  was  lightning  and  black  eclipse 

With  a  bellowing  sound  and  crash. 

The  Dahlgrens  are  dumb, 
Dumb  are  the  mortars ; 
Never  more  shall  the  drum 
Beat  to  colors  and  quarters  — 
The  great  guns  are  silent. 

— Henry  Howard  Brownett. 


FARRAGUT  AT  MOBILE  BAY 

DURING  the  Civil  War  our  navy  produced, 
as  it  has  always  produced  in  every  war, 
scores  of  capable  officers,  of  brilliant  single-ship 
commanders,  of  men  whose  daring  courage  made 
them  fit  leaders  in  any  hazardous  enterprise.  In 
this  respect  the  Union  seamen  in  the  Civil  War 
merely  lived  up  to  the  traditions  of  their  service. 
In  a  service  with  such  glorious  memories  it  was  a 
difficult  thing  to  establish  a  new  record  in  feats  of 
personal  courage  or  warlike  address.  Biddle,  in 
the  Revolutionary  War,  fighting  his  little  frigate 
against  a  ship  of  the  line  until  she  blew  up  with 
all  on  board,  after  inflicting  severe  loss  on  her 
huge  adversary  ;  Decatur,  heading  the  rush  of 
the  boarders  in  the  night  attack  when  they  swept 
the  wild  Moorish  pirates  from  the  decks  of  their 
anchored  prize  ;  Lawrence,  dying  with  the  words 
on  his  lips,  "  Don't  give  up  the  ship  "  ;  and  Perry, 
triumphantly  steering  his  bloody  sloop-of-war  to 
victory  with  the  same  words  blazoned  on  his  ban- 


304      HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

ner — men  like  these,  and  like  their  fellows,  who 
won  glory  in  desperate  conflicts  with  the  regular 
warships  and  heavy  privateers  of  England  and 
France,  or  with  the  corsairs  of  the  Barbary  States, 
left  behind  a  reputation  which  was  hardly  to  be 
dimmed,  though  it  might  be  emulated,  by  later 
feats  of  mere  daring. 

But  vital  though  daring  is,  indispensable  though 
desperate  personal  prowess  and  readiness  to  take 
chances  are  to  the  make-up  of  a  fighting  navy, 
other  qualities  are  needed  in  addition  to  fit  a  man 
for  a  place  among  the  great  sea-captains  of  all 
time.  It  was  the  good  fortune  of  the  navy  in  the 
Civil  War  to  produce  one  admiral  of  renown,  one 
peer  of  all  the  mighty  men  who  have  ever  waged 
war  on  the  ocean.  Farragut  was  not  only  the 
greatest  admiral  since  Nelson,  but,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  Nelson,  he  was  as  great  an  admiral 
as  ever  sailed  the  broad  or  the  narrow  seas. 

David  Glasgow  Farrao-ut  was  born  in  Tennes- 
see.  He  was  appointed  to  the  navy  while  living 
in  Louisiana,  but  when  the  war  came  he  remained 
loyal  to  the  Union  flag.  This  puts  him  in  the 
category  of  those  men  who  deserved  best  of  their 
country  in  the  Civil  War ;  the  men  who  were 
Southern  by  birth,  but  who  stood  loyally  by 
the  Union;  the  men  like  General  Thomas  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  like  Farragut's  own  flag-captain  at  the 
battle  of  Mobile  Bay,  Drayton  of  South  Carolina. 


FARRAGUT   AT   MOBILE   BAY  305 

It  was  an  easy  thing  in  the  North  to  support  the 
Union,  and  it  was  a  double  disgrace  to  be,  like 
Vallandigham  and  the  Copperheads,  against  it ; 
and  in  the  South  there  were  a  great  multitude  of 
men,  as  honorable  as  they  were  brave,  who,  from 
the  best  of  motives,  went  with  their  States  when 
they  seceded,  or  even  advocated  secession.  But 
the  highest  and  loftiest  patriots,  those  who  de- 
served best  of  the  whole  country,  were  the  men 
from  the  South  who  possessed  such  heroic  cou- 
rage, and  such  lofty  fealty  to  the  high  ideal  of  the 
Union,  that  they  stood  by  the  flag  when  their 
fellows  deserted  it,  and  unswervingly  followed  a 
career  devoted  to  the  cause  of  the  whole  nation 
and  of  the  whole  people.  Among  all  those  who 
fought  in  this,  the  greatest  struggle  for  righteous- 
ness which  the  present  century  has  seen,  these 
men  stand  preeminent ;  and  among  them  Farra- 
gut  stands  first.  It  was  his  good  fortune  that  by 
his  life  he  offered  an  example,  not  only  of  patriot- 
ism, but  of  supreme  skill  and  daring  in  his  pro- 
fession. He  belongs  to  that  class  of  commanders 
who  possess  in  the  highest  degree  the  qualities 
of  courage  and  daring,  of  readiness  to  assume 
responsibility,  and  of  willingness  to  run  great 
risks  ;  the  qualities  without  which  no  commander, 
however  cautious  and  able,  can  ever  become  really 
great.  He  possessed  also  the  unwearied  capacity 
for  taking  thought  in  advance,  which  enabled  him 


306       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

to  prepare  for  victory  before  the  day  of  battle 
came  ;  and  he  added  to  this  an  inexhaustible  fer- 
tility of  resource  and  presence  of  mind  under  no 
matter  what  strain. 

His  whole  career  should  be  taught  every  Amer- 
ican schoolboy,  for  when  that  schoolboy  becomes 
a  voter  he  should  have  learned  the  lesson  that  the 
United  States,  while  it  ought  not  to  become  an 
overgrown  military  power,  should  always  have  a 
first-class  navy,  formidable  from  the  number  of  its 
ships,  and  formidable  still  more  from  the  excel- 
lence of  the  individual  ships  and  the  high  charac- 
ter of  the  officers  and  men.  Farragut  saw  the 
war  of  1812,  in  which,  though  our  few  frigates 
and  sloops  fought  some  glorious  actions,  our  coasts 
were  blockaded  and  insulted,  and  the  Capitol  at 
Washington  burned,  because  our  statesmen  and 
our  people  had  been  too  short-sighted  to  build  a 
big  fighting  navy  ;  and  Farragut  was  able  to  per- 
form his  great  feats  on  the  Gulf  coast  because, 
when  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  we  had  a  navy 
which,  though  too  small  in  point  of  numbers,  was 
composed  of  ships  as  good  as  any  afloat. 

Another  lesson  to  be  learned  by  a  study  of  his 
career  is  that  no  man  in  a  profession  so  highly 
technical  as  that  of  the  navy  can  win  a  great  suc- 
cess unless  he  has  been  brought  up  in  and  spe- 
cially trained  for  that  profession,  and  has  devoted 
his  life  to  the  work.     This  fact  was  made  plainly 


ys,^LS*2-g££ 


FARRAGUT   AT   MOBILE   BAY  309 

evident  in  the  desperate  hurly-burly  of  the  night 
battle  with  the  Confederate  flotilla  below  New 
Orleans — the  incidents  of  this  hurly-burly  being, 
perhaps,  best  described  by  the  officer  who,  in  his 
report  of  his  own  share  in  it,  remarked  that  "  all 
sorts  of  things  happened."  Of  the  Confederate 
rams  there  were  two,  commanded  by  trained  offi- 
cers formerly  in  the  United  States  navy,  Lieuten- 
ants Kennon  and  Warley.  Both  of  these  men 
handled  their  little  vessels  with  remarkable  cou- 
rage, skill,  and  success,  fighting  them  to  the  last, 
and  inflicting  serious  and  heavy  damage  upon  the 
Union  fleet.  The  other  vessels  of  the  flotilla  were 
commanded  by  men  who  had  not  been  in  the  reg- 
ular navy,  who  were  merely  Mississippi  River 
captains,  and  the  like.  These  men  were,  doubt- 
less, naturally  as  brave  as  any  of  the  regular  offi- 
cers ;  but,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  they  failed 
ignobly  in  the  time  of  trial,  and  showed  a  fairly 
startling  contrast  with  the  regular  naval  officers 
beside  or  against  whom  they  fought.  This  is  a 
fact  which  may  well  be  pondered  by  the  ignorant 
or  unpatriotic  people  who  believe  that  the  United 
States  does  not  need  a  navy,  or  that  it  can  impro- 
vise one,  and  improvise  officers  to  handle  it,  when- 
ever the  moment  of  need  arises. 

When  a  boy,  Farragut  had  sailed  as  a  midship- 
man on  the  Essex  in  her  famous  cruise  to  the 
South  Pacific,  and  lived  through  the  murderous 


310      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

fight  in  which,  after  losing  three  fifths  of  her  crew, 
she  was  captured  by  two  British  vessels.  Step  by 
step  he  rose  in  his  profession,  but  never  had  an 
opportunity  of  distinguishing  himself  until,  when 
he  was  sixty  years  old,  the  Civil  War  broke  out. 
He  was  then  made  flag  officer  of  the  Gulf  squad- 
ron ;  and  the  first  success  which  the  Union  forces 
met  with  in  the  southwest  was  scored  by  him, 
when  one  night  he  burst  the  iron  chains  which 
the  Confederates  had  stretched  across  the  Missis- 
sippi, and,  stemming  the  swollen  flood  with  his 
splendidly-handled  steam-frigates,  swept  past  the 
forts,  sank  the  rams  and  gunboats  that  sought  to 
bar  his  path,  and  captured  the  city  of  New  Or- 
leans. After  further  exciting  service  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, service  in  which  he  turned  a  new  chapter 
in  the  history  of  naval  warfare  by  showing  the 
possibilities  of  heavy  sea-going  vessels  when  used 
on  great  rivers,  he  again  went  back  to  the  Gulf, 
and,  in  the  last  year  of  the  war,  was  allotted  the 
task  of  attempting  the  capture  of  Mobile,  the  only 
important  port  still  left  open  to  the  Confederates. 
In  August,  1864,  Farragut  was  lying  with  his 
fleet  off  Mobile  Bay.  For  months  he  had  been 
eating  out  his  heart  while  undergoing  the  wearing 
strain  of  the  blockade ;  sympathizing,  too,  with 
every  detail  of  the  doubtful  struggle  on  land.  "  I 
get  right  sick,  every  now  and  then,  at  the  bad 
news,"  he  once  wrote  home  ;  and  then  again,  "  The 


FARRAGUT   AT    MOBILE   BAY  311 

victory  of  the  Kearsarge  over  the  Alabama  raised 
me  up ;  I  would  sooner  have  fought  that  fight 
than  any  ever  fought  on  the  ocean."  As  for  him- 
self, all  he  wished  was  a  chance  to  fight,  for  he- 
had  the  fighting  temperament,  and  he  knew  that, 
in  the  long  run,  an  enemy  can  only  be  beaten  by 
being  out-fought,  as  well  as  out-manceuvered. 
He  possessed  a  splendid  self-confidence,  and 
scornfully  threw  aside  any  idea  that  he  would  be 
defeated,  while  he  utterly  refused  to  be  daunted 
by  the  rumors  of  the  formidable  nature  of  the  de- 
fenses against  which  he  was  to  act.  "  I  mean  to 
be  whipped  or  to  whip  my  enemy,  and  not  to  be 
scared  to  death,"  he  remarked  in  speaking  of  these 
rumors. 

The  Confederates  who  held  Mobile  used  all 
their  skill  in  preparing  for  defense,  and  all  their 
courage  in  makingf  that  defense  good.  The  mouth 
of  the  bay  was  protected  by  two  fine  forts,  heavily 
armed,  Morgan  and  Gaines.  The  winding  chan- 
nels were  filled  with  torpedoes,  and,  in  addition, 
there  was  a  flotilla  consisting  of  three  gunboats, 
and,  above  all,  a  big  ironclad  ram,  the  Tennessee, 
one  of  the  most  formidable  vessels  then  afloat. 
She  was  not  fast,  but  she  carried  six  high- power 
rifled  guns,  and  her  armor  was  very  powerful, 
while,  being  of  light  draft,  she  could  take  a  posi- 
tion where  Farragut's  deep-sea  ships  could  not 
get  at  her. 


3i2       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Farragut  made  his  attack  with  four  monitors, 
—  two  of  them,  the  Tecumseh  and  Manhattan, 
of  large  size,  carrying  15 -inch  guns,  and  the  other 
'two,  the  Winnebago  and  Chickasaw,  smaller  and 
lighter,  with  11 -inch  guns, — and  the  wooden  ves- 
sels, fourteen  in  number.  Seven  of  these  were 
big  sloops-of-war,  of  the  general  type  of  Farra- 
gut's  own  flagship,  the  Hartford.  She  was  a 
screw  steamer,  but  was  a  full-rigged  ship  likewise, 
with  twenty-two  9-inch  shell  guns,  arranged  in 
broadside,  and  carrying  a  crew  of  three  hundred 
men.  The  other  seven  were  light  gunboats. 
When  Farragut  prepared  for  the  assault,  he  ar- 
ranged to  make  the  attack  with  his  wooden  ships 
in  double  column.  The  seven  most  powerful  were 
formed  on  the  right,  in  line  ahead,  to  engage  Fort 
Morgan,  the  heaviest  of  the  two  forts,  which  had 
to  be  passed  close  inshore  to  the  right.  The  light 
vessels  were  lashed  each  to  the  left  of  one  of  the 
heavier  ones.  By  this  arrangement  each  pair  of 
ships  was  given  a  double  chance  to  escape,  if  ren- 
dered helpless  by  a  shot  in  the  boiler  or  other 
vital  part  of  the  machinery.  The  heaviest  ships 
led  in  the  fighting  column,  the  first  place  being 
taken  by  the  Brooklyn  and  her  gunboat  consort, 
while  the  second  position  was  held  by  Farragut 
himself  in  the  Hartford,  with  the  little  Metacomet 
lashed  alongside.  He  waited  to  deliver  the  attack 
until  the  tide  and  the  wind  should  be  favorable, 


FARRAGUT    AT    MOBILE   BAY  313 

and  made  all  his  preparations  with  the  utmost 
care  and  thoughtfulness.  Preeminently  a  man 
who  could  inspire  affection  in  others,  both  the  offi- 
cers and  men  of  the  fleet  regarded  him  with  fer- 
vent loyalty  and  absolute  trust. 

The  attack  was  made  early  on  the  morning  of 
August  5.  Soon  after  midnight  the  weather  be- 
came hot  and  calm,  and  at  three  the  Admiral 
learned  that  a  light  breeze  had  sprung  up  from 
the  quarter  he  wished,  and  he  at  once  announced, 
"  Then  we  will  go  in  this  morning."  At  day- 
break he  was  at  breakfast  when  the  word  was 
brought  that  the  ships  were  all  lashed  in  couples. 
Turning  quietly  to  his  captain,  he  said,  "  Well, 
Drayton,  we  might  as  well  get  under  way ;  "  and 
at  half-past  six  the  monitors  stood  down  to  their 
stations,  while  the  column  of  wooden  ships  was 
formed,  all  with  the  United  States  flag  hoisted, 
not  only  at  the  peak,  but  also  at  every  masthead. 
The  four  monitors,  trusting  in  their  iron  sides, 
steamed  in  between  the  wooden  ships  and  the 
fort.  Every  man  in  every  craft  was  thrilling  with 
the  fierce  excitement  of  battle  ;  but  in  the  minds 
of  most  there  lurked  a  vague  feeling  of  unrest  over 
one  danger.  For  their  foes  who  fought  in  sight, 
for  the  forts,  the  gunboats,  and  the  great  ironclad 
ram,  they  cared  nothing ;  but  all,  save  the  very 
boldest,  were  at  times  awed,  and  rendered  uneasy 
by  the  fear  of  the  hidden  and  the  unknown.    Dan- 


3  H       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

ger  which  is  great  and  real,  but  which  is  shrouded 
in  mystery,  is  always  very  awful ;  and  the  ocean 
veterans  dreaded  the  torpedoes — the  mines  of 
death — which  lay,  they  knew  not  where,  thickly 
scattered  through  the  channels  along  which  they 
were  to  thread  their  way. 

The  tall  ships  were  in  fighting  trim,  with  spars 
housed,  and  canvas  furled.  The  decks  were  strewn 
with  sawdust;  every  man  was  in  his  place;  the 
guns  were  ready,  and  except  for  the  song  of  the 
sounding-lead  there  was  silence  in  the  ships  as 
they  moved  forward  through  the  glorious  morn- 
ing. It  was  seven  o'clock  when  the  battle  began, 
as  the  Tecumseh,  the  leading  monitor,  fired  two 
shots  at  the  fort.  In  a  few  minutes  Fort  Morgfan 
was  ablaze  with  the  flash  of  her  guns,  and  the 
leading  wooden  vessels  were  sending  back  broad- 
side after  broadside.  Farragut  stood  in  the  port 
main-rigging,  and  as  the  smoke  increased  he  grad- 
ually climbed  higher,  until  he  was  close  by  the 
maintop,  where  the  pilot  was  stationed  for  the 
sake  of  clearer  vision.  The  captain,  fearing  lest 
by  one  of  the  accidents  of  battle  the  great  admiral 
should  lose  his  footing,  sent  aloft  a  man  with  a 
lasher,  and  had  a  turn  or  two  taken  around  his 
body  in  the  shrouds,  so  that  he  might  not  fall  if 
wounded ;   for  the  shots  were  flying  thick. 

At  first  the  ships  used  only  their  bow  guns,  and 
the  Confederate  ram,  with  her  great  steel  rifles, 


FARRAGUT   AT   MOBILE   BAY  315 

and  her  three  consorts,  taking  station  where  they 
could  rake  the  advancing  fleet,  caused  much  loss. 
In  twenty  minutes  after  the  opening  of  the  fight 
the  ships  of  the  van  were  fairly  abreast  of  the  fort, 
their  guns  leaping  and  thundering ;  and  under 
the  weight  of  their  terrific  fire  that  of  the  fort  vis- 
ibly slackened.  All  was  now  uproar  and  slaugh- 
ter, the  smoke  drifting  off  in  clouds.  The  decks 
were  reddened  and  ghastly  with  blood,  and  the 
wreck  of  flying  splinters  drove  across  them  at  each 
discharge.  The  monitor  Tecumseh  alone  was  si- 
lent. After  firing  the  first  two  shots,  her  com- 
mander, Captain  Craven,  had  loaded  his  two  big 
guns  with  steel  shot,  and,  thus  prepared,  reserved 
himself  for  the  Confederate  ironclad,  which  he 
had  set  his  heart  upon  taking  or  destroying  sin- 
gle-handed. The  two  columns  of  monitors  and 
the  wooden  ships  lashed  in  pairs  were  now  ap- 
proaching the  narrowest  part  of  the  channel,  where 
the  torpedoes  lay  thickest ;  and  the  guns  of  the 
vessels  fairly  overbore  and  quelled  the  fire  from 
the  fort.  All  was  well,  provided  only  the  two  col- 
umns could  push  straight  on  without  hesitation  ; 
but  just  at  this  moment  a  terrible  calamity  befell 
the  leader  of  the  monitors.  The  Tecumseh,  stand- 
ing straight  for  the  Tennessee,  was  within  two 
hundred  yards  of  her  foe,  when  a  torpedo  suddenly 
exploded  beneath  her.  The  monitor  was  about 
five  hundred  yards  from  the  Hartford,  and  from 


316     HERO    TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  maintop  Farragut,  looking  at  her,  saw  her 
reel  violently  from  side  to  side,  lurch  heavily  over, 
and  go  down  head-foremost,  her  screw  revolving 
wildly  in  the  air  as  she  disappeared.  Captain 
Craven,  one  of  the  gentlest  and  bravest  of  men, 
was  in  the  pilot-house  with  the  pilot  at  the  time. 
As  she  sank,  both  rushed  to  the  narrow  door,  but 
there  was  time  for  only  one  to  get  out.  Craven 
was  ahead,  but  drew  to  one  side,  saying,  "After 
you,  pilot."  As  the  pilot  leaped  through,  the  water 
rushed  in,  and  Craven  and  all  his  crew,  save  two 
men,  settled  to  the  bottom  in  their  iron  coffin. 

None  of  the  monitors  were  awed  or  daunted  by 
the  fate  of  their  consort,  but  drew  steadily  on- 
ward. In  the  bigger  monitors  the  captains,  like 
the  crews,  had  remained  within  the  iron  walls ; 
but  on  the  two  light  crafts  the  commanders  had 
found  themselves  so  harassed  by  their  cramped 
quarters,  that  they  both  stayed  outside  on  the 
deck.  As  these  two  steamed  steadily  ahead, 
the  men  on  the  flagship  saw  Captain  Stevens,  of 
the  Winnebago,  pacing  calmly,  from  turret  to  tur- 
ret, on  his  unwieldy  iron  craft,  under  the  full  fire  of 
the  fort.  The  captain  of  the  Chickasaw,  Perkins, 
was  the  youngest  commander  in  the  fleet,  and  as 
he  passed  the  Hartford,  he  stood  on  top  of  the 
turret,  waving  his  hat  and  dancing  about  in  wild- 
est excitement  and  delight. 

But,  for  a  moment,  the  nerve  of  the  commander 


FARRAGUT   AT   MOBILE   BAY  317 

of  the  Brooklyn  failed  him.  The  awful  fate  of  the 
Tecumseh  and  the  sight  of  a  number  of  objects  in 
the  channel  ahead,  which  seemed  to  be  torpedoes, 
caused  him  to  hesitate.  He  stopped  his  ship, 
and  then  backed  water,  making  sternway  to  the 
Hartford,  so  as  to  stop  her  also.  It  was  the  crisis 
of  the  fight  and  the  crisis  of  Farragut's  career. 
The  column  was  halted  in  a  narrow  channel,  right 
under  the  fire  of  the  forts.  A  few  moments'  delay 
and  confusion,  and  the  golden  chance  would  have 
been  past,  and  the  only  question  remaining  would 
have  been  as  to  the  magnitude  of  the  disaster. 
Ahead  lay  terrible  danger,  but  ahead  lay  also 
triumph.  It  might  be  that  the  first  ship  to  go 
through  would  be  sacrificed  to  the  torpedoes ;  it 
might  be  that  others  would  be  sacrificed ;  but  go 
through  the  fleet  must.  Farragut  signaled  to  the 
Brooklyn  to  go  ahead,  but  she  still  hesitated.  Im- 
mediately, the  admiral  himself  resolved  to  take  the 
lead.  Backing  hard  he  got  clear  of  the  Brooklyn, 
twisted  his  ship's  prow  short  round,  and  then, 
going  ahead  fast,  he  dashed  close  under  the 
Brooklyn  s  stern,  straight  at  the  line  of  buoys  in 
the  channel.  As  he  thus  went  by  the  Brooklyn, 
a  warning  cry  came  from  her  that  there  were  tor- 
pedoes ahead.  "  Damn  the  torpedoes  !  "  shouted 
the  admiral;  "go  ahead,  full  speed;"  and  the 
Hartford  and  her  consort  steamed  forward.  As 
they  passed  between  the  buoys,  the  cases  of  the 


318      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

torpedoes  were  heard  knocking  against  the  bot- 
tom of  the  ship ;  but  for  some  reason  they  failed 
to;  explode,  and  the  Hartford  went  safely  through 
the  gates  of  Mobile  Bay,  passing  the  forts.  Far- 
ragut's  last  and  hardest  battle  was  virtually  won. 
After  a  delay  which  allowed  the  flagship  to  lead 
nearly  a  mile,  the  Brooklyn  got  her  head  round, 
and  came  in,  closely  followed  by  all  the  other 
ships.  The  Tennessee  strove  to  interfere  with  the 
wooden  craft  as  they  went  in,  but  they  passed, 
exchanging  shots,  and  one  of  them  striving  to 
ram  her,  but  inflicting  only  a  glancing  blow.  The 
ship  on  the  fighting  side  of  the  rear  couple  had 
been  completely  disabled  by  a  shot  through  her 
boiler. 

As  Farragut  got  into  the  bay  he  gave  orders 
to  slip  the  gunboats,  which  were  lashed  to  each 
of  the  Union  ships  of  war,  against  the  Confed- 
erate gunboats,  one  of  which  he  had  already  dis- 
abled by  his  fire,  so  that  she  was  run  ashore  and 
burnt.  Jouett,  the  captain  of  the  Metacomet,  had 
been  eagerly  waiting  this  order,  and  had  his  men 
already  standing  at  the  hawsers,  hatchet  in  hand. 
When  the  signal  for  the  gunboats  to  chase  was 
hoisted,  the  order  to  Jouett  was  given  by  word 
of  mouth,  and  as  his  hearty  "  Aye,  aye,  sir,"  came 
in  answer,  the  hatchets  fell,  the  hawsers  parted, 
and  the  Metacomet  leaped  forward  in  pursuit.  A 
thick  rain-squall  came  up,  and  rendered  it  impos- 


FARRAGUT   AT   MOBILE   BAY  319 

sible  for  the  rear  gunboats  to  know  whither  the 
Confederate  flotilla  had  fled.  When  it  cleared 
away,  the  watchers  on  the  fleet  saw  that  one  of 
the  two  which  were  uninjured  had  slipped  off  to 
Fort  Morgan,  while  the  other,  the  Selma,  was  un- 
der the  guns  of  the  Metacomet,  and  was  promptly 
carried  by  the  latter. 

Meanwhile  the  ships  anchored  in  the  bay,  about 
four  miles  from  Fort  Morgan,  and  the  crews  were 
piped  to  breakfast ;  but  almost  as  soon  as  it  was 
begun,  the  lookouts  reported  that  the  great  Con- 
federate ironclad  was  steaming  down,  to  do  battle, 
single-handed,  with  the  Union  fleet.  She  was 
commanded  by  Buchanan,  a  very  gallant  and  able 
officer,  who  had  been  on  the  Merrimac,  and  who 
trusted  implicitly  in  his  invulnerable  sides,  his 
heavy  rifle  guns,  and  his  formidable  iron  beak. 
As  the  ram  came  on,  with  splendid  courage,  the 
ships  got  under  way,  while  Farragut  sent  word 
to  the  monitors  to  attack  the  Tennessee  at  once. 
The  fleet  surgeon,  Palmer,  delivered  these  orders. 
In  his  diary  he  writes  : 

"  I  came  to  the  Chickasatv ;  happy  as  my  friend  Perkins 
habitually  is,  I  thought  he  would  turn  a  somerset  with  joy, 
when  I  told  him,  '  The  admiral  wants  you  to  go  at  once  and 
fight  the  Tennessee.'  " 

At  the  same  time,  the  admiral  directed  the 
wooden  vessels  to  charge  the  ram,  bow  on,  at  full 
speed,  as  well  as  to  attack  her  with  their  guns. 


320      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

The  monitors  were  very  slow,  and  the  wooden 
vessels  began  the  attack.  The  first  to  reach  the 
hostile  ironclad  was  the  Monongakela,  which 
Struck  her  square  amidships ;  and  five  minutes 
later  the  Lackawanna,  going-  at  full  speed,  de- 
livered another  heavy  blow.  Both  the  Union 
vessels  fired  such  guns  as  would  bear  as  they 
swung  round,  but  the  shots  glanced  harmlessly 
from  the  armor,  and  the  blows  of  the  ship  pro- 
duced no  serious  injury  to  the  ram,  although  their 
own  stems  were  crushed  in  several  feet  above  and 
below  the  water  line.  The  Hartford  then  struck 
the  Tennessee,  which  met  her  bows  on.  The  two 
antagonists  scraped  by,  their  port  sides  touching. 
As  they  rasped  past,  the  Hartford 's  guns  were 
discharged  against  the  ram,  their  muzzles  only 
half  a  dozen  feet  distant  from  her  iron-clad  sides  ; 
but  the  shot  made  no  impression.  While  the  three 
ships  were  circling  to  repeat  the  charge,  the  Lack- 
awanna ran  square  into  the  flagship,  cutting  the 
vessel  down  to  within  two  feet  of  the  water.  For 
a  moment  the  ship's  company  thought  the  vessel 
sinking,  and  almost  as  one  man  they  cried  :  "Save 
the  admiral !  get  the  admiral  on  board  the  Lack- 
awanna." But  Farragut,  leaping  actively  into  the 
chains,  saw  that  the  ship  was  in  no  present  dan- 
ger, and  ordered  her  again  to  be  headed  for  the 
Tennessee.  Meanwhile,  the  monitors  had  come 
up,  and  the  battle  raged  between  them  and  the 


FARRAGUT   AT   MOBILE   BAY  321 

great  ram.  Like  the  rest  of  the  Union  fleet,  they 
carried  smooth-bores,  and  their  shot  could  not 
break  through  her  iron  plates ;  but  by  sustained 
and  continuous  hammering,  her  frame  could  be 
jarred  and  her  timbers  displaced.  Two  of  the 
monitors  had  been  more  or  less  disabled  already, 
but  the  third,  the  Chickasaw,  was  in  fine  trim,  and 
Perkins  got  her  into  position  under  the  stern  of 
the  Tennessee,  just  after  the  latter  was  struck  by 
the  Hartford ;  and  there  he  stuck  to  the  end, 
never  over  fifty  yards  distant,  and  keeping  up  a 
steady  rapping  of  11 -inch  shot  upon  the  iron 
walls,  which  they  could  not  penetrate,  but  which 
they  racked  and  shattered.  The  Chickasaw  fired 
fifty-two  times  at  her  antagonist,  shooting  away 
the  exposed  rudder-chains  and  the  smokestack, 
while  the  commander  of  the  ram,  Buchanan,  was 
wounded  by  an  iron  splinter  which  broke  his  leg. 
Under  the  hammering,  the  Te?messee  became 
helpless.  She  could  not  be  steered,  and  was  un- 
able to  bring  a  gun  to  bear,  while  many  of  the 
shutters  of  the  ports  were  jammed.  For  twenty 
minutes  she  had  not  fired  a  shot.  The  wooden 
vessels  were  again  bearing  down  to  ram  her ;  and 
she  hoisted  the  white  flag. 

Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Mobile  Bay,  Farra- 
gut's  crowning  victory.  Less  than  three  hours 
elapsed  from  the  time  that  Fort  Morgan  fired  its 
first  gun  to  the  moment  when  the  Tennessee  hauled 


322      HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

down  her  flag.  Three  hundred  and  thirty-five 
men  had  been  killed  or  wounded  in  the  fleet,  and 
one  vessel,  the  Tecumseh,  had  gone  down ;  but 
the  Confederate  flotilla  was  destroyed,  the  bay 
had  been  entered,  and  the  forts  around  it  were 
helpless  to  do  anything  further.  One  by  one  they 
surrendered,  and  the  port  of  Mobile  was  thus 
sealed  against  blockade  runners,  so  that  the  last 
source  of  communication  between  the  Confederacy 
and  the  outside  world  was  destroyed.  Farragut 
had  added  to  the  annals  of  the  Union  the  page 
which  tells  of  the  greatest  sea-fight  in  our  history. 


LINCOLN 


D  captain.     My  captain.     Our  fearful  trip  is  done ; 

The  ship  has  weathered  every  rack,  the  prize  we  sought  is 

won ; 
The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear,  the  people  all  exulting, 
While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel,  the  vessel  grim  and 

daring : 
But  O  heart !     Heart !     Heart ! 
Leave  you  not  the  little  spot, 
Where  on  the  deck  my  captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

O  captain.     My  captain.     Rise  up  and  hear  the  bells ; 

Rise  up  —  for  you  the  flag  is  flung  —  for  you  the  bugle  trills ; 

For  you  bouquets  and  ribbon'd  wreaths  —  for  you  the  shores 

a-crowding; 
For  you  they  call,  the  swaying  mass,  their  eager  faces 

turning; 
O  captain.     Dear  father. 
This  arm  I  push  beneath  you ; 
It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck, 
You  've  fallen  cold  and  dead. 

My  captain  does  not  answer,  his  lips  are  pale  and  still ; 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm,  he  has  no  pulse  nor  will : 
But  the  ship,  the  ship  is  anchor'd  safe,  its  voyage  closed  and 

done; 
From  fearful  trip,  the  victor  ship,  comes  in  with  object  won  : 
Exult  O  shores,  and  ring,  O  bells. 
But  I  with  silent  tread, 
Walk  the  spot  the  captain  lies, 
Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

—  Walt  Whitman. 


LINCOLN 

AS  Washington  stands  to  the  Revolution  and 
Xi  the  establishment  of  the  government,  so 
Lincoln  stands  as  the  hero  of  the  mightier  strug- 
gle by  which  our  Union  was  saved.  He  was  born 
in  1809,  ten  years  after  Washington,  his  work 
done,  had  been  laid  to  rest  at  Mount  Vernon.  No 
great  man  ever  came  from  beginnings  which 
seemed  to  promise  so  little.  Lincoln's  family,  for 
more  than  one  generation,  had  been  sinking,  in- 
stead of  rising,  in  the  social  scale.  His  father  was 
one  of  those  men  who  were  found  on  the  frontier 
in  the  early  days  of  the  western  movement,  always 
changing  from  one  place  to  another,  and  dropping 
a  little  lower  at  each  remove.  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  born  into  a  family  who  were  not  only  poor, 
but  shiftless,  and  his  early  days  were  days  of  ig- 
norance, and  poverty,  and  hard  work.  Out  of 
such  inauspicious  surroundings,  he  slowly  and 
painfully  lifted  himself.  He  gave  himself  an  edu- 
cation, he  took  part  in  an  Indian  war,  he  worked 


326      HERO   TALES    FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

in  the  fields,  he  kept  a  country  store,  he  read  and 
studied,  and,  at  last,  he  became  a  lawyer.  Then 
he, entered  into  the  rough  politics  of  the  newly- 
settled  State.  He  grew  to  be  a  leader  in  his 
county,  and  went  to  the  legislature.  The  road 
was  very  rough,  the  struggle  was  very  hard  and 
very  bitter,  but  the  movement  was  always  upward. 

At  last  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  served 
one  term  in  Washington  as  a  Whig  with  credit, 
but  without  distinction.  Then  he  went  back  to 
his  law  and  his  politics  in  Illinois.  He  had,  at 
last,  made  his  position.  All  that  was  now  needed 
was  an  opportunity,  and  that  came  to  him  in  the 
great  anti-slavery  struggle. 

Lincoln  was  not  an  early  Abolitionist.  His 
training  had  been  that  of  a  regular  party  man, 
and  as  a  member  of  a  great  political  organization, 
but  he  was  a  lover  of  freedom  and  justice.  Slav- 
ery, in  its  essence,  was  hateful  to  him,  and  when 
the  conflict  between  slavery  and  freedom  was 
fairly  joined,  his  path  was  clear  before  him.  He 
took  up  the  anti- slavery  cause  in  his  own  State, 
and  made  himself  its  champion  against  Douglas, 
the  great  leader  of  the  Northern  Democrats.  He 
stumped  Illinois  in  opposition  to  Douglas,  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Senate,  debating  the  question 
which  divided  the  country  in  every  part  of  the 
State.  He  was  beaten  at  the  election,  but,  by 
the  power  and  brilliancy  of  his  speeches,  his  own 


LINCOLN  327 

reputation  was  made.  Fighting-  the  anti-slavery 
battle  within  constitutional  lines,  concentrating  his 
whole  force  against  the  single  point  of  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery  to  the  Territories,  he  had  made  it 
clear  that  a  new  leader  had  arisen  in  the  cause  of 
freedom.  From  Illinois  his  reputation  spread  to 
the  East,  and  soon  after  his  great  debate  he  de- 
livered a  speech  in  New  York  which  attracted 
wide  attention.  At  the  Republican  convention 
of  1856,  his  name  was  one  of  those  proposed  for 
vice-president. 

When  i860  came,  he  was  a  candidate  for  the 
first  place  on  the  national  ticket.  The  leading 
candidate  was  William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York, 
the  most  conspicuous  man  of  the  country  on  the 
Republican  side,  but  the  convention,  after  a  sharp 
struggle,  selected  Lincoln,  and  then  the  great  po- 
litical battle  came  at  the  polls.  The  Republicans 
were  victorious,  and,  as  soon  as  the  result  of  the 
voting  was  known,  the  South  set  to  work  to  dis- 
solve the  Union.  In  February  Lincoln  made  his 
way  to  Washington,  at  the  end  coming  secretly 
from  Harrisburg  to  escape  a  threatened  attempt 
at  assassination,  and  on  March  4,  1861  assumed 
the  presidency. 

No  public  man,  no  great  popular  leader,  ever 
faced  a  more  terrible  situation.  The  Union  was 
breaking,  the  Southern  States  were  seceding,  trea- 
son was  rampant  in  Washington,  and  the  Govern- 


328       HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

ment  was  bankrupt.  The  country  knew  that 
Lincoln  was  a  man  of  great  capacity  in  debate,  de- 
voted to  the  cause  of  anti-slavery  and  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Union.  But  what  his  ability  was 
to  deal  with  the  awful  conditions  by  which  he  was 
surrounded,  no  one  knew.  To  follow  him  through 
the  four  years  of  civil  war  which  ensued  is,  of 
course,  impossible  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  no 
greater,  no  more  difficult,  task  has  ever  been  faced 
by  any  man  in  modern  times,  and  no  one  ever 
met  a  fierce  trial  and  conflict  more  successfully. 

Lincoln  put  to  the  front  the  question  of  the 
Union,  and  let  the  question  of  slavery  drop,  at 
first,  into  the  background.  He  used  every  exer- 
tion to  hold  the  border  States  by  moderate  meas- 
ures, and,  in  this  way,  prevented  the  spread  of  the 
rebellion.  For  this  moderation,  the  anti-slavery 
extremists  in  the  North  assailed  him,  but  nothing 
shows  more  his  far-sighted  wisdom  and  strength 
of  purpose  than  his  action  at  this  time.  By  his 
policy  at  the  beginning  of  his  administration,  he 
held  the  border  States,  and  united  the  people  of 
the  North  in  defense  of  the  Union. 

As  the  war  went  on,  he  went  on,  too.  He  had 
never  faltered  in  his  feelings  about  slavery.  He 
knew,  better  than  any  one,  that  the  successful  dis- 
solution of  the  Union  by  the  slave  power  meant, 
not  only  the  destruction  of  an  empire,  but  the  vic- 
tory of  the  forces  of  barbarism.      But  he  also  saw, 


^fttfu 


h^c^-w 


LINCOLN  331 

what  very  few  others  at  the  moment  could  see, 
that,  if  he  was  to  win,  he  must  carry  his  people 
with  him,  step  by  step.  So  when  he  had  rallied 
them  to  the  defense  of  the  Union,  and  checked 
the  spread  of  secession  in  the  border  States,  in  the 
autumn  of  1862  he  announced  that  he  would  issue 
a  proclamation  freeing  the  slaves.  The  extrem- 
ists had  doubted  him  in  the  beginning,  the  con- 
servative and  the  timid  doubted  him  now,  but 
when  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  issued, 
on  January  1,  1863,  it  was  found  that  the  people 
were  with  him  in  that,  as  they  had  been  with  him 
when  he  staked  everything  upon  the  maintenance 
of  the  Union.  The  war  went  on  to  victory,  and 
in  1864  the  people  showed  at  the  polls  that  they 
were  with  the  President,  and  reelected  him  by 
overwhelming  majorities.  Victories  in  the  field 
went  hand  in  hand  with  success  at  the  ballot-box, 
and,  in  the  spring  of  1865,  all  was  over.  On 
April  9,  1865,  Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox, 
and  five  days  later,  on  April  14,  a  miserable  assas- 
sin crept  into  the  box  at  the  theater  where  the 
President  was  listening  to  a  play,  and  shot  him. 
The  blow  to  the  country  was  terrible  beyond 
words,  for  then  men  saw,  in  one  bright  flash,  how 
great  a  man  had  fallen. 

Lincoln  died  a  martyr  to  the  cause  to  which  he 
had  given  his  life,  and  both  life  and  death  were 
heroic.     The  qualities  which  enabled  him  to  do 


332       HERO   TALES   FROM    AMERICAN   HISTORY 

his  great  work  are  very  clear  now  to  all  men. 
His  courage  and  his  wisdom,  his  keen  perception 
and  his  almost  prophetic  foresight,  enabled  him 
to  deal  with  all  the  problems  of  that  distracted 
time  as  they  arose  around  him.  But  he  had  some 
qualities,  apart  from  those  of  the  intellect,  which 
were  of  equal  importance  to  his  people  and  to  the 
work  he  had  to  do.  His  character,  at  once 
strong  and  gentle,  gave  confidence  to  every  one, 
and  dignity  to  his  cause.  He  had  an  infinite  pa- 
tience, and  a  humor  that  enabled  him  to  turn  aside 
many  difficulties  which  could  have  been  met  in 
no  other  way.  But  most  important  of  all  was 
the  fact  that  he  personified  a  great  sentiment, 
which  ennobled  and  uplifted  his  people,  and  made 
them  capable  of  the  patriotism  which  fought  the 
war  and  saved  the  Union.  He  carried  his  people 
with  him,  because  he  knew,  instinctively,  how  they 
felt  and  what  they  wanted.  He  embodied,  in  his 
own  person,  all  their  highest  ideals,  and  he  never 
erred  in  his  judgment. 

He  is  not  only  a  great  and  commanding  figure 
among  the  great  statesmen  and  leaders  of  history, 
but  he  personifies,  also,  all  the  sadness  and  the 
pathos  of  the  war,  as  well  as  its  triumphs  and  its 
glories.  No  words  that  any  one  can  use  about 
Lincoln  can,  however,  do  him  such  justice  as  his 
own,  and  I  will  close  this  volume  with  two  of 
Lincoln's  speeches,  which  show  what  the  war  and 
all  the  great  deeds  of  that  time  meant  to  him, 


LINCOLN  333 

and  through  which  shines  the  great  soul  of  the 
man  himself.  On  November  19,  1863,  he  spoke 
as  follows  at  the  dedication  of  the  National  cem- 
etery on  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg : 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought  forth  on 
this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedi- 
cated to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing  whether 
that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can 
long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war. 
We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  rest- 
ing place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation 
might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should 
do  this. 

But  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we  cannot  con- 
secrate—  we  cannot  hallow — this  ground.  The  brave  men, 
living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated  it  far 
above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little 
note  or  long  remember  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  for- 
get what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather,  to  be 
dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  have  fought 
here,  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to 
be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us  —  that 
from  the  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause 
for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  that  we 
here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ; 
that  this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom  ; 
and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  peo- 
ple, shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 

On  March  4,  1865,  when  he  was  inaugurated 
the  second  time,  he  made  the  following  address : 

Fellow-countrymen  :  At  this  second  appearing  to  take  the 
oath  of  presidential  office,  there  is  less  occasion  for  an  extended 


334      HERO   TALES   FROM   AMERICAN   HISTORY 

address  than  there  was  at  the  first.  Then  a  statement,  some- 
what in  detail,  of  a  course  to  be  pursued,  seemed  proper. 
Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which  public  dec- 
larations have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every  point  and 
phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still  absorbs  the  attention  and 
engrosses  the  energies  of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be 
presented.  The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly 
depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself;  and  it  is, 
I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all.  With 
high  hope  for  the  future,  no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ven- 
tured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all 
thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil  war. 
All  dreaded  it — all  sought  to  avert  it.  While  the  inaugural 
address  was  being  delivered  from  this  place,  devoted  altogether 
to  saving  the  Union  without  war  —  seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  divide  effects,  by  negotiation.  Both  parties  depre- 
cated war ;  but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather  than  let  it 
perish.     And  the  war  came. 

One  eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored  slaves,  not 
distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but  localized  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  it.  These  slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and  power- 
ful interest.  All  knew  that  this  interest  was,  somehow,  the 
cause  of  the  war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this 
interest  was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the 
Union,  even  by  war  ;  while  the  government  claimed  no  right 
to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  Territorial  enlargement  of  it. 
Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  the  dura- 
tion which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither  anticipated  that 
the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease  with,  or  even  before,  the 
conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph, 
and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding.  Both  read  the 
same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the  same  God ;  and  each  invokes  his 
aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any  man  should 
dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from 
the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we 


LINCOLN  335 

be  not  judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered  — 
that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully. 

The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  "  Woe  unto  the  world 
because  of  offenses,  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses  come ; 
but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh."  If  we 
shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those  offenses 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which, 
having  continued  through  his  appointed  time,  he  now  wills 
to  remove,  and  that  he  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  ter- 
rible war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the  offenses  come, 
shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  divine  attri- 
butes which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to 
him?  Fondly  do  we  hope  —  fervently  do  we  pray — that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bond- 
man's two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall 
be  paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "  The  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all;  with  firmness 
in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on 
to  finish  the  work  we  are  in  ;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds  ; 
to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow,  and  his  orphan — to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just,  a  lasting,  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all 
nations. 


